Holonomy around circular fibres 2026-10-07
For the Riemannian metric , where and has period , parallel transport around acts on the orthonormal basis components of a tangent vector by a rotation through . Indeed, those components obey and as functions of . Thus all tangent vectors return to themselves exactly when . The integer criterion concerns holonomy and is stronger than local flatness.
After choosing a Riemannian metric on the source of a submersion , the orthogonal complements map isomorphically to . Therefore every vector field on has the smooth lift
Hyperbolic surface Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
A surface with a complete Riemannian metric of constant Gaussian curvature . Its local model is the Poincare half-plane model; the orientable case is a quotient by a free properly discontinuous group action of orientation-preserving isometries.
Initial data in general relativity 2026-10-06
Gravitational initial data on a spatial manifold consist of a Riemannian metric and an extrinsic curvature satisfying the Hamiltonian constraint and momentum constraint. Matter theories require their own data and constraints as well. The data determine a maximal Cauchy development.
A Riemannian metric induces a dual inner product on each cotangent space. On decomposable covectors define and extend bilinearly. Increasing wedges of an orthonormal coframe form an orthonormal basis. This positive-definite inner product is the one used to define the Hodge star operator.
Isometric immersion 2026-10-05
An isometric immersion is an immersion between Riemannian manifolds whose derivative preserves the inner products of tangent vectors; equivalently, . Its derivative is injective and the target may have larger dimension. A local isometry additionally requires a local diffeomorphism, so its tangent maps are linear isomorphisms. For example, a sphere with its induced Riemannian metric is isometrically immersed in Euclidean space, although its positive intrinsic sectional curvature differs from that of the ambient space.
Isometry group 2026-10-06
The isometry group of a metric space consists of its bijective isometries, with composition as the group operation. For a Riemannian metric, these are the diffeomorphisms preserving the metric tensor. Right translations of a right-invariant Riemannian metric supply a faithful subgroup isomorphic to the underlying Lie group.
Length of a curve 2026-10-05
For a piecewise smooth curve, in an ambient Euclidean space, or the corresponding Riemannian metric norm on a manifold. This is invariant under regular monotone reparametrization.
Local flattening of a Riemannian metric 2026-10-07
A smooth bump function supported in a chosen coordinate neighborhood and equal to one near a chosen point allows a Riemannian metric to be replaced locally by a flat one. The displayed convex combination stays positive definite and glues smoothly to the original metric outside the support. This is a local modification of the metric, not a claim that the original metric is flat.
Localized volume perturbation 2026-10-07
For a nonnegative smooth bump function supported in an open set, multiplying a Riemannian metric by increases volume there for while leaving the metric elsewhere fixed. For distinct regular compact domains a perturbation supported in the interior of one outside the other breaks equal volume, and therefore breaks any isometry between the domains. The perturbations tend to the original metric in the smooth topology.
Lorentzian metric 2026-10-06
A Lorentzian metric is a smooth nondegenerate symmetric metric tensor with one negative and all other positive directions, or its opposite-sign convention. At each point, a nonzero tangent is timelike, null or spacelike according as is negative, zero or positive in the first convention. Unlike a Riemannian metric, it gives a light cone rather than a positive norm. Minkowski spacetime is its constant flat model, and proper time along a timelike curve is .
Metric construction of a compatible almost complex structure Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-05
Choose an auxiliary Riemannian metric and define the skew-adjoint bundle map by . Thenis a compatible almost complex structure. The positive square root is defined fiberwise by the spectral theorem for normal operators, and its smooth dependence on makes smooth.
Moduli-space approximation for solitons 2026-10-05
Substitute a static soliton family with slowly time-dependent collective coordinates into the action. The kinetic energy induces a Riemannian metric on the family, after imposing any Gauss law constraint in gauge theory constraint and projecting out gauge directions. If its static energy is constant, the Euler-Lagrange equations are the geodesic equations of . An approximately flat family instead carries a potential . This approximation neglects excitations of the other field modes and is justified only when their effects are small on the time and energy scales studied.
Musical isomorphism 2026-10-05
A Riemannian metric gives inverse vector bundle isomorphismsIn coordinates they have matrices and . Every smooth manifold admits a Riemannian metric by a partition of unity, so its tangent and cotangent bundles are isomorphic as real smooth vector bundles. This isomorphism depends on the metric, not merely on the manifold.
Nowhere locally homogeneous metric 2026-10-07
A smooth Riemannian metric with no nonidentity local isometry between open subsets. Equivalently distinct nonempty open subsets never have isometric induced metrics. This strong local rigidity is also called bumpy in some spectral-geometry treatments; it is distinct from the closed-geodesic nondegeneracy convention for bumpy metrics.
Two Riemannian metrics have the same Levi-Civita connection precisely when their relative positive self-adjoint endomorphism is parallel for that connection. Parallel transport preserves both metrics. Consequently agreement at one point implies agreement everywhere on a connected manifold. Without that agreement, constant scalar multiples always give examples; constant nonproportional Euclidean forms show that a common connection does not force scalar proportionality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 ib Paper 1 4B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24