Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / iii / Paper 20 / 1

Use the nonnegative convention for the Laplace-Beltrami operator. For a smooth function $f$ on a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, three intrinsic definitions areHere $d$ is the exterior derivative, $d^{\ast }$ its formal $L^2$ adjoint for the Riemannian volume density, $\mathrm{grad}f$ the Riemannian gradient, and $\nabla$ the Levi-Civita connection. The bilinear form $\nabla df$ is the Riemannian Hessian. The equally common nonpositive convention negates all three definitions simultaneously.

In local coordinates let $g^{ij}$ be the inverse metric matrix and $\rho =\sqrt{\det (g_{ij})}$. By the defining relation $g(\mathrm{grad}f,V)=df(V)$,The divergence of a Riemannian vector field can be defined by ${\mathcal{L}}_V(d{V}_g)=(\mathrm{div}V)d{V}_g$. Differentiating the coordinate volume density gives $\mathrm{div}V={\rho }^{-1}{\partial }_i(\rho V^i)$. Thus the second definition becomesFor compactly supported smooth $h$, coordinate integration by parts showsSince this holds for every such $h$, the first and second definitions agree. This argument also works on a nonorientable Riemannian manifold, using its volume density; no global orientation is needed.

For the third definition,The Christoffel symbols satisfy ${\Gamma }_{ik}^i={\partial }_k\log \rho$. This follows by tracing their formula and using ${\partial }_k\log \det g=\mathrm{tr}(g^{-1}{\partial }_{k}g)$. Metric compatibility givesSubstitute both identities into the coordinate divergence expression to obtainThis proves all three definitions equivalent. In geodesic normal coordinates at a point $p$, the common value is $-{\sum }_i{\partial }_i^{2}f(p)$. Finally, on a closed manifold,confirming the chosen positive Laplace-Beltrami operator sign convention.