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The arc length of a piecewise smooth curve $\gamma :[a,b]\to M$ on a Riemannian manifold is the integral of its speed:An odometer measures this accumulated travel rather than displacement between the endpoints. In Euclidean space, the Riemannian metric is the ordinary inner product, so the formula becomes ${\int }_a^b\sqrt{{\sum }_i{\dot{\gamma }}_i(t{)}^2}dt$.

For a circle of radius $R$ traversed through an angle $\alpha$, use $\gamma (t)=(R\cos (\alpha t),R\sin (\alpha t))$, $0\le t\le 1$. Its speed is $R|\alpha |$, hence its arc length is $R|\alpha |$. Traversing a full circle twice gives $4\pi R$, even though the starting and ending points coincide. The same formula measures the two great circle arcs pictured in geodesic.

The curve parameter controls how fast the journey happens, not its arc length. A regular increasing or decreasing reparametrization preserves the integral by change of variables; reversing direction leaves the speed norm unchanged. Retracing part of a route does add length, because it changes the actual journey.

On a closed connected Riemannian manifold with nonnegative Ricci curvature, harmonic one-forms are parallel under nonnegative Ricci curvature. Evaluation at one point injects their space into the cotangent space. The Hodge decomposition theorem identifies its dimension with the first Betti number, giving $b_1(M)\le \dim M$. For example, a genus-two closed orientable surface times a circle has dimension three and first Betti number five, so no Riemannian metric on that product has nonnegative Ricci curvature.

A Riemannian metric on a Lie group is bi-invariant if both left and right translations are isometries. Its identity inner product is invariant under the Adjoint representation of a Lie group; infinitesimally,This skew-adjointness is the key additional property beyond left invariance.

For smooth maps from a compact manifold with a fixed Riemannian metric to Euclidean space, the displayed metric measures uniform convergence of maps and their first derivatives. For a manifold embedded in Euclidean space use its induced metric. Different fixed metrics give equivalent topologies on a compact domain.

A linear isometry between tangent spaces of complete simply connected Riemannian manifolds extends to a global isometry when parallel transport along corresponding broken geodesics identifies their Riemann curvature tensors. In particular, complete simply connected manifolds of the same dimension and constant sectional curvature are isometric: their curvature tensors are determined by that common constant and their Riemannian metrics. This is the constant-curvature form often called Cartan's theorem.

Clifford multiplication is the action of a Clifford algebra on a module. The displayed relation uses the negative Riemannian metric convention; in a compatible Hermitian inner product, $c(v{)}^{\ast }=-c(v)$ for real $v$. Another convention writes $C(v)=ic(v)$, giving self-adjoint generators with positive anticommutator. Switching between these conventions switches a geometric Dirac operator between self-adjoint and skew-adjoint realizations.

Suppose these sets exhaust a manifold, and its Riemannian metric is Euclidean beyond some radius in the end coordinates. A finite-time geodesic has fixed speed and cannot increase its exterior radius faster than that speed. It remains in one compact core enlargement, with velocity in a compact disk bundle. The geodesic equation therefore continues beyond every finite parameter endpoint. The compactness hypothesis is substantive: the open exterior of a closed Euclidean ball, with empty core, is incomplete at its inner boundary despite having a Euclidean metric at infinity.

On a closed manifold with a Riemannian metric the positive Laplace-Beltrami operator is self-adjoint with compact resolvent. It has a complete smooth orthonormal eigenbasis, finite-dimensional eigenspaces, nonnegative eigenvalues tending to infinity, and polynomial eigenvalue-counting bounds. Elliptic regularity bounds derivatives of its eigenfunctions polynomially in their eigenvalues.

A compatible triple consists of a symplectic form, a compatible almost complex structure, and the Riemannian metric $g(u,v)=\omega (u,Jv)$. Equivalently $g(Ju,v)=\omega (u,v)$.

The graph $z=x^2+y^2$ in Euclidean three-space has the displayed induced Riemannian metric and positive Gaussian curvature. It is smooth at its vertex; the polar-coordinate singularity is only a coordinate artifact. The metric dominates the Euclidean plane metric, so upward stability of Riemannian completeness proves completeness. It has infinite diameter. In dimension two Ricci curvature equals Gaussian curvature times the metric, so this is a counterexample to compactness under merely pointwise positive Ricci curvature. Its curvature tends to zero at infinity.

Two Riemannian metrics lie in the same conformal class when one is a positive smooth scalar multiple of the other. They measure the same angles, while lengths may change from point to point. On an oriented Riemannian surface, rotation of each tangent plane through $\pi /2$ determines a complex structure which depends only on this conformal class.

In a holomorphic coordinate, a length element $\rho (z)|dz|$. Smooth positive densities define ordinary Riemannian metrics; extremal length also permits nonnegative measurable densities with finite positive area $\int {\rho }^{2}dxdy$.

An equivalence class of Riemannian metrics under multiplication by positive smooth functions. Such rescalings preserve angles. On an oriented smooth surface, a conformal structure is equivalent to a complex structure, with local holomorphic coordinates in which its metrics are positive multiples of $d{x}^2+d{y}^2$.

The metric construction of a compatible almost complex structure is continuous in the auxiliary Riemannian metric, and recovers $J$ when applied to $g_J=\omega (\cdot ,J\cdot )$. Interpolating $g_J$ linearly to a fixed auxiliary metric therefore contracts the space of compatible almost complex structures. In particular it is nonempty and path connected.

Imagine folding a sheet along its horizontal axis by the smooth map $F:{\mathbb{R}}^2\to {\mathbb{R}}^2$, $F(x,y)=(x,y^2)$. The inputs $(a,r)$ and $(a,-r)$ have the same output. Along $y=0$, horizontal motion still changes the output, but vertical motion produces no first-order change: $F(a,\epsilon )-F(a,0)=(0,{\epsilon }^2)$. These inputs are critical points of a smooth map even though their differential is not the zero linear map. The missing direction in the target tangent space is what matters.

Precisely, let $f:X^m\to Y^n$ be a smooth map between smooth manifolds without boundary. An input $p\in X$ is a critical point of a smooth map when its differentialis not surjective, equivalently when its rank of a linear map is less than $n$. An input where it is surjective is a regular point; a map with no critical points of a smooth map is a submersion. The threshold is the target dimension, not $\min (m,n)$. In manifold charts, compute the matrix rank of the $n\times m$ Jacobian matrix; changes of charts preserve that matrix rank. ^[ref]

For the fold,Thus its set of critical points of a smooth map is the entire horizontal axis. Away from that axis, its differential can produce every infinitesimal target displacement. At the axis, it can produce only horizontal ones. This diagnoses where the two inverse branches in the picture merge.

For a scalar smooth function $f:X\to \mathbb{R}$, the target dimension is one. A linear map to $\mathbb{R}$ fails to be surjective exactly when it is zero, so here a critical point of a smooth map means $d{f}_p=0$. In Euclidean space this is precisely the familiar critical point condition $\nabla f(p)=0$: every first partial derivative vanishes. On a Riemannian manifold, it is equivalently ${\nabla }_{g}f(p)=0$ for the chosen Riemannian metric; the Riemannian gradient depends on that metric, but whether it vanishes does not. See Loring W. Tu, An Introduction to Manifolds, Proposition 8.23 for the scalar coordinate criterion. The scalar smooth function $f(t)=t^3$ has a critical point at zero without a local maximum or local minimum.

A source of lower dimension gives a different warning. For the smooth map $G:\mathbb{R}\to {\mathbb{R}}^2$, $G(t)=(t,t^2)$, the Jacobian matrix is the column $(1,2t{)}^T$, of matrix rank one at every input. Every input is a critical point of a smooth map, since the target dimension is two, even though this parametric curve has nonzero velocity everywhere and is an immersion. More generally, if $m<n$, no differential $T_{p}X\to T_{f(p)}Y$ can be surjective, so every input is critical. The terminology measures the ability to fill target directions, rather than whether the parametrized curve looks smooth.

For a finite isometric group action on a closed Riemannian surface, choose a disk in the free locus whose translates are disjoint. Modify the Riemannian metric there, and identically on its translates, by small supported changes with three distinguished high Gaussian curvature maxima. Give their heights distinct values occurring nowhere else, arrange them as a tight noncollinear cluster, and keep separate clusters far apart. Such markers can be made by local conformal bump functions controlling curvature and its derivatives. Every quotient isometry must send an entire labelled cluster to another. After identifying the marked disks with the original one, an isometry fixes its three noncollinear points and is therefore the identity locally. If $p_i:M\to U_i\backslash M$ are free finite quotients, any quotient isometry $F$ consequently makes $F\circ p_1=p_2\circ t$ on an open disk for some element $t$ of the original group. Two local isometries agreeing on an open set agree on the connected surface, by propagation along geodesics. The equality therefore holds globally and implies $t{U}_1{t}^{-1}\subseteq U_2$, hence equality for equal subgroup orders. Nonconjugate equal-order subgroups thus have nonisometric quotients for this marked invariant metric; constant curvature is not required.

On an $n$-dimensional smooth manifold, the density bundle $|{\Lambda }^n{T}^{\ast }M|$ is the real line bundle whose coordinate transformation uses the absolute value of the Jacobian determinant. A density can therefore be integrated without an orientation of a smooth manifold. A Riemannian metric gives the positive density $\sqrt{\det (g_{ij})}|d{x}^1\cdots d{x}^n|$, including on a nonorientable manifold.

// Target: fiber-bundle.bigb

Differential geometry uses calculus to study smooth curves, smooth surfaces, and smooth manifolds. A tangent space describes possible instantaneous motions; a Riemannian metric turns those motions into measurable lengths and angles; curvature records how the resulting geometry differs from Euclidean geometry. Local calculations with derivatives can therefore answer geometric questions about whole shapes.

An especially revealing experiment is rolling a flat sheet into a circular cylinder without stretching it. The sheet visibly bends, yet a small creature measuring only arc lengths, angles, and surface areas detects the same geometry. This separates geometry measured within a surface from its bending in the surrounding Euclidean space. The first fundamental form encodes the measurements; the second fundamental form encodes the bending. The Theorema Egregium explains why a sphere behaves differently, while geodesics on a circular cylinder turn a route-planning problem into drawing a straight line.

The differential geometry of smooth surfaces studies their induced Riemannian metrics and intrinsic or extrinsic curvature. The first fundamental form measures lengths, while the second fundamental form and shape operator describe bending in an ambient Euclidean space. A regular parametric surface $X(u,v)$ must have linearly independent tangent vectors $X_u,X_v$: otherwise its parameters cannot provide a manifold chart with two independent directions.

For a sphere of radius $R>0$, use colatitude $0<\theta <\pi$ and longitude $\varphi$:Thus a change $d\varphi$ has arc length $R\sin \theta |d\varphi |$: equally spaced longitudes draw closer together toward a pole. The coordinate degeneracy at the poles belongs to this parametrization, not to the smooth surface.

Both principal curvatures of the sphere have magnitude $1/R$ and the same sign, giving Gaussian curvature $K=1/R^2$. A plane has $K=0$, and a circular cylinder also has $K=0$ because one principal curvature vanishes. These three familiar shapes show why visible bending alone cannot measure intrinsic Gaussian curvature.

For the Levi-Civita connection of a Riemannian metric, the divergence of $X$ is ${\mathrm{div}}_{g}X=\mathrm{tr}(Y\mapsto {\nabla }_{Y}X)$. In coordinates it equals $(\det g{)}^{-1/2}{\partial }_i((\det g{)}^{1/2}{X}^i)$. On an oriented manifold it satisfies ${\mathcal{L}}_X{\omega }_g=({\mathrm{div}}_{g}X){\omega }_g$. The codifferential on a one-form satisfies $\delta \theta =-{\mathrm{div}}_g({\theta }^{♯})$, where $♯$ is the musical isomorphism; this follows by integration by parts or the Hodge star formula.