For any positive-dimensional , choose a smooth function with not identically zero. A nonconstant smooth bump in a coordinate chart supplies one on an arbitrary smooth manifold. Translate by this exact differential form:
The cotangent fiber translation identities give
Thus a nontrivial exact fiber translation is a symplectomorphism that fails to preserve the Liouville one-form. For example, on one can take : it preserves but changes to .
If dimension zero is admitted, and , so every diffeomorphism preserves and this requested distinction is impossible. The example therefore applies in positive dimension, as required for a nonzero differential one-form.
An integral curve of a vector field is a smooth curve satisfying for every in its interval of definition. Passing through at time zero means . The tangent-vector equality is intrinsic; in a coordinate chart it becomes
Smoothness makes the coordinate right side locally Lipschitz continuous. The Picard-Lindelof theorem supplies a locally unique solution through each coordinate initial value.
In fact, two integral curves of with the same initial point agree throughout their common time interval containing zero. To pass from local to global uniqueness, the set of coincidence times is nonempty and closed by continuity and the Hausdorff property of the smooth manifold. At a coincidence time, put both curves in one coordinate chart; local ordinary differential equation uniqueness makes them agree on a neighborhood of that time. Thus the coincidence set is open as well as closed in the connected common interval, so it is the whole interval. This argument applies around any prescribed time, not only zero.
By joining all extensions that agree on overlaps, one obtains the unique maximal integral curve of a vector field through . Its maximal interval need not be all of : completeness is an additional property of the vector field.
A connection on a vector bundle is an -linear map
satisfying . Equivalently its directional version is real-bilinear and satisfies
For a complex bundle it is complex-linear in the section variable and has the same Leibniz property.
Every smooth vector bundle over an ordinary Hausdorff, second-countable smooth manifold has such a connection. Choose trivializing open sets , local frames and a subordinate locally finite partition of unity . In each frame define the flat local connection
Then set , extending each weighted term by zero outside . The supports lie inside the corresponding trivializing sets, making the extensions smooth, and local finiteness makes the sum smooth. Since , its Leibniz rule is
This is the construction of a vector bundle connection by a partition of unity.
The difference of two connections is -linear in both its vector-field argument and its section argument. The derivative terms cancel, so depends only on at each point. Smooth local coefficients therefore identify it with
Conversely, any such added to a connection preserves its axioms. Thus connections form an affine space modeled on . Choosing a base connection gives the noncanonical bijection ; there is no distinguished zero connection and hence no canonical vector-space identification. This is the affine space of vector-bundle connections.
For a connection on , the torsion tensor is the alternating operation . The connection and bracket Leibniz rules give
Alternation then gives as well. Hence it is tensorial, of type one contravariant and two covariant indices:
It is equivalently a -valued two-form, a torsion form.
For the local frame with dual coframe , define
The connection is -linear in , so these are smooth differential one-forms. Expansion in the frame gives , and uniqueness follows by applying each . Here the first index is the input frame vector and the second the output coefficient; this fixes the connection one-form convention.
Expand and apply the connection Leibniz rule:
Subtract the corresponding expression with exchanged, and then subtract . By the exterior derivative of a one-form evaluated on vector fields,
Since all pairs of tangent vectors can be tested, equality of the two-forms follows:
This is the Cartan first structure equation with input-first indices. Its plus sign is correct with the stated index order and wedge order; the common output-first convention writes the same identity with a minus sign and reversed wedge factors.
An -dimensional smooth manifold is a Hausdorff space with a countable topological base, equipped with a smooth atlas of homeomorphisms from open subsets onto open subsets of , whose overlap maps are smooth diffeomorphisms. The smooth structure is the maximal smooth atlas compatible with these manifold charts. Here manifolds have no boundary unless specified otherwise.
For a space with all the requested topological properties but no such atlas, take the topological tripod: three closed intervals joined at one endpoint. It is a compact connected subspace of the plane with its induced metric. A countable base of planar rational balls restricts to a countable base, the metric makes it Hausdorff, and compactness gives a finite subcover of every open cover, hence a locally finite refinement and paracompactness.
At an interior point of any arm, arbitrarily small neighborhoods are intervals. A coordinate ball in dimension at least two would remain connected after deleting its center; an interval does not. Dimension zero would make the space discrete. Thus any possible connected manifold structure would have dimension one. But a sufficiently small neighborhood of the junction, minus the junction, has three components, whereas an interval chart has two. This contradiction rules out even a topological manifold structure, and hence any smooth one.
The product smooth structure uses manifold charts . Transition maps act separately in the two coordinate blocks and are smooth with smooth inverses. Products of countable bases give a countable base, and the product remains Hausdorff. Therefore with this natural smooth structure.
Define the tangent space by point derivations: a tangent vector at is an -linear map on germs of smooth functions at , satisfying . Addition and scalar multiplication preserve this rule, so these derivations form a vector space. In coordinates , the local identity
follows by integrating the derivative of along the coordinate line segment. Derivations annihilate constants, so it gives . The coordinate derivations are independent since they evaluate the coordinate functions as . Thus
For a smooth map, define the differential of a smooth map intrinsically by . It is again linear and satisfies the derivation rule at , so it maps into . Its coordinate matrix is the Jacobian of the coordinate expression of , independently of the charts by the intrinsic definition and chain rule.
Finally, a zero differential forces each target coordinate function to have all derivatives zero on a small connected source coordinate ball mapping into one target chart. Integration on straight segments makes those functions constant there. Hence is locally constant. Each nonempty fiber is both open and closed, so connectedness gives the zero-differential constancy theorem, .
Combining metric compatibility with the torsion-free condition forces the Koszul formula:
Nondegeneracy of proves uniqueness of the Levi-Civita connection. For existence, use the right side to define . Expanding brackets shows that this expression is -linear in , so it defines a smooth one-form; the musical isomorphism gives the required vector field. The same expansion shows , additivity, and , establishing the connection rules. Subtracting the formulas with exchanged gives . Adding the formulas pairing with and with gives metric compatibility. Thus this construction has both required properties.
In coordinate vector fields the brackets vanish. Consequently the Christoffel symbols and coordinate derivative are
Repeated indices are summed. The displayed connection type in the source is best understood in its standard form on two vector fields; if the first input is an individual tangent vector at a point, the output lies in the tangent fiber at that point rather than in the space of global sections.
For the parallel metrics with a common Levi-Civita connection, let be a piecewise smooth path from the point of equality to any . Connected smooth manifolds admit such paths because coordinate balls are path connected. Parallel transport for the common connection is invertible and preserves both metrics. Therefore
Every pair of tangent vectors at arises this way, so everywhere.
Dropping the agreement at one point removes the conclusion. For any constant , has the same Christoffel symbols. Nor must the two metrics be proportional: on , , the constant metrics and both have zero connection coefficients. In general write . Since both metrics are parallel, , so . Conversely, a positive -self-adjoint parallel makes the same torsion-free connection compatible with , proving equality of their Levi-Civita connections. Thus one-point agreement specifies and forces it everywhere; without it, nontrivial parallel choices can remain.