Beltrami coefficient 2026-10-05
For an orientation-preserving quasiconformal map, the almost-everywhere coefficient . It is a coordinate-dependent representative of a tensor; the modulus and the resulting maximal dilatation are coordinate-independent.
Cotangent bundle orientation Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
Every cotangent bundle is an orientable smooth manifold even when its base is not. The intrinsic canonical one-form on a cotangent bundle has . Its th wedge power is the nowhere-zero form , which defines an orientation of the -dimensional total space. Using gives another standard sign convention; either is a symplectic form.
Double of a manifold 2026-10-07
Glue two copies of a compact manifold along their boundaries to form its double. A collar gives the double a smooth structure when is smooth. Folding the copies onto gives a retraction; in particular, inclusion of either copy is injective on homology. For an oriented manifold, use the opposite orientation on the second copy.
Intersection pairing 2026-10-07
An intersection pairing counts signed intersections of transverse representatives of complementary homology classes, using one relative representative when the manifold has boundary. With coefficients it is defined without orientation choices. Poincare-Lefschetz duality makes this a perfect pairing for compact manifolds.
Choose a nonzero element of for an -dimensional Lie group and transport it by inverse left translations. This gives a smooth nowhere-zero left-invariant differential form of top degree, hence an orientation. The identity proves invariance. The space of invariant top forms is one-dimensional, since evaluation at the identity identifies it with .
Metric signature 2026-10-06
The metric signature records the signs of the diagonalized nondegenerate metric tensor, equivalently its numbers of negative and positive directions. For a four-dimensional Lorentzian manifold, both and its overall negative convention are common. The numerical signs of contractions and component Hodge star operator identities must be consistent with that choice and the orientation.
Mod-two handle duality 2026-10-07
Reverse a handle decomposition of a compact -dimensional manifold. Absolute -handles become relative -handles based on the boundary. The absolute boundary matrices count attaching sphere-belt sphere intersections; the corresponding relative matrices are their transposes over . The absolute chain complex is thus the complementary-degree dual of the relative chain complex. The universal coefficient theorem for cohomology proves Poincare-Lefschetz duality without an orientation hypothesis.
Mod-two Poincare duality 2026-10-07
For a closed -dimensional manifold, Poincare duality holds over without an orientation assumption. The mod-two fundamental class exists because orientation signs disappear. The resulting complementary-degree intersection pairing is a perfect pairing.
Moser theorem for volume forms Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-07
On a compact connected smooth manifold without boundary, two positive volume forms for the same orientation are related by an orientation-preserving diffeomorphism exactly when their total integrals agree. A positive interpolation and Cartan's magic formula give the smooth isotopy realizing the equality.
Orientation of a vector bundle Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
An -orientation of a rank- vector bundle is a coherent choice of generator of for every fiber, equivalently a Thom class with the corresponding fiberwise restriction.