The square is a rank-two Killing tensor. It is symmetric because it pairs the covectors and using the metric. Along every affinely parametrized geodesic, its contraction is the squared norm of the carried by parallel transport covector . Metric compatibility makes that norm constant, proving the Killing tensor equation. On a Riemannian manifold this tensor is positive semidefinite.
Sunada theorem Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
Suppose a finite group acts by Riemannian isometries on a compact Riemannian manifold , and Gassmann equivalent subgroups act freely. The quotient manifolds have equal Laplace-Beltrami operator spectra. For an eigenfunction space , the quotient multiplicity is , and the equality follows by summing its character of a representation over conjugacy classes. Nonconjugacy inside alone does not guarantee that the quotients are nonisometric.
Symmetry of the second fundamental form Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The second fundamental form of an embedded submanifold of a Riemannian manifold is symmetric. Its ambient Levi-Civita connection is a torsion-free connection, so
The Lie bracket of vector fields tangent to the submanifold is tangent and therefore has zero normal component. This proof applies to a curved ambient manifold as well as Euclidean space.
A connected Riemannian manifold is two-point homogeneous if its isometry group is transitive on ordered pairs at each fixed Riemannian distance. The equal-distance condition is necessary because isometries preserve distance. Round spheres and Euclidean spaces are examples. The unit tangent transitivity characterizes two-point homogeneity lemma shows that this pair condition is equivalent to transitivity on the unit tangent bundle.
For a connected Riemannian manifold, two-point homogeneity is equivalent to the isometry group being transitive on the unit tangent bundle. One direction follows by taking short equal-length radial geodesic segments: the Gauss lemma identifies their distance, and injectivity of the exponential map identifies the initial directions after the endpoints are matched. Conversely, unit tangent transitivity implies point homogeneity, hence completeness. The Hopf-Rinow theorem supplies minimizing geodesics for arbitrary equal-distance pairs. Matching their initial unit tangent vectors and using uniqueness of the geodesic equation matches their other endpoints.
For a smooth harmonic function on a manifold without boundary, assume its nonzero superlevel sets are compact. On a regular positive superlevel set , integration by parts gives . Applying the same argument to proves . This avoids assuming an unstated decay rate for the boundary flux at infinity.
Volterra convolution of kernels Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
For time-dependent integral kernels on a Riemannian manifold, composition also integrates over the intermediate point: . It is associative under the usual absolute-integrability hypotheses. The integration simplex gives factorial bounds for iterated convolutions of bounded kernels.
Weyl law 2026-10-14
For the positive scalar Laplace-Beltrami operator on a closed -dimensional Riemannian manifold, the number of eigenvalues at most , counted with multiplicity, has the displayed leading asymptotic. The exponent determines the dimension and the coefficient determines the total volume of the Riemannian metric. There is an analogous result with fixed Dirichlet boundary conditions or Neumann boundary conditions on a compact smooth domain.