Differential of a smooth map Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
For a smooth map between manifolds , the differential is the linear map obtained by differentiating in charts. Intrinsically it sends the tangent vector of a curve through to the tangent vector of . The chain rule makes it independent of charts and gives .
Local degree of a continuous map Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be a continuous map between oriented -dimensional manifolds, with . Suppose is an isolated point of the fiber over . Choose an open neighborhood with . The map of pairs
induces a map between rank-one degree- local homology groups. Relative to the local orientation of a manifold, this map is multiplication by an integer, the local degree. Excision makes it independent of the neighborhood. A smooth map between manifolds with invertible derivative at has local degree , by the inverse function theorem and the chosen orientations.
For a smooth map between manifolds , the four constructions go in the directions dictated by composition and the differential of a smooth map.
The pullback of a smooth function is , a function on . The pushforward of a curve is , a curve in with the same parameter interval.
For a tangent vector , its pushforward is . Intrinsically, treating a tangent vector as a derivation on functions,
For a covector , the pullback of a covector is the dual linear map:
No inverse map is required. A pushed-forward field for a general map is a field along that map; it need not assign a unique vector to an image point with several preimages.
At , the differential of a smooth map defines the pushforward of a vector field by
This is a tangent vector at , and varies smoothly as a section of the pullback tangent bundle. In local coordinates its components are .
For a general smooth map between manifolds, this is a vector field along a map, rather than an intrinsic vector field on all of . A vector field on the image can be defined only if these vectors agree whenever two points have the same image, and the resulting field must also be smooth; a projectable vector field must meet that requirement. For a diffeomorphism, there is no ambiguity and . For example, on and give , with opposite nonzero values at the two preimages of . Thus the source's notation must be read with this qualification.
An embedded smooth -dimensional manifold is locally carried by a smooth ambient coordinate change to . A map between such manifolds is a smooth map between manifolds if its coordinate representatives are smooth. Its differential sends the tangent vector represented by a curve to ; equivalently it is the derivative in charts.
A regular value is one for which is surjective at every , including vacuous regularity when the fibre is empty. For example zero is not a regular value of , , because .
For an invertible matrix , the derivative of the determinant is
At a determinant-one matrix it is nonzero, since taking gives value one. The regular level set theorem therefore makes an embedded manifold of dimension , also for when it is a single point. Matrix multiplication has polynomial ambient coordinates and restricts to the group, so it is smooth. At the identity,
Finally suppose the singular-matrix set were an embedded smooth manifold near zero for . Every curve lies in it, since its rank is at most one. Thus every matrix unit belongs to its tangent space at zero. These span , forcing its local dimension to be . An embedded manifold of full ambient dimension is locally open, but arbitrarily small scalar multiples of the identity are invertible. This contradiction proves the singular-matrix set is not an embedded smooth manifold. The argument addresses the subset-manifold convention specified at the start.
An abstract smooth surface is a Hausdorff second-countable topological space with an atlas of charts to open subsets of whose transition maps are smooth. It is orientable when it has such an atlas for which every transition map has positive Jacobian determinant. A map is a smooth map when every coordinate representation
is smooth wherever it is defined.
The map is a smooth involution with no fixed point: the equation
would force , which is impossible on . For each , choose a sufficiently small coordinate neighbourhood such that
Then the quotient projection restricts to a homeomorphism
Transporting a smooth chart across this homeomorphism gives the quotient chart
On an overlap, a lift lies either in another chosen neighbourhood or in its image under . The corresponding transition map is therefore a transition map on , possibly composed with the diffeomorphism , and is smooth. Since this is a free action of the finite group , the quotient is Hausdorff and second countable. This constructs the smooth quotient by a free finite group action, and in these charts is locally the identity. Hence is a local diffeomorphism, in particular smooth.
To test orientability, parametrize the cylinder by
The involution acts in these coordinates as
whose derivative has determinant . Thus is an orientation-reversing diffeomorphism of the cylinder.
If the quotient surface were orientable, its orientation would pull back through the local diffeomorphism to an orientation of . The identity would then force to preserve that pulled-back orientation, contradicting the negative determinant above. Therefore
Define the smooth map
At its derivative in the direction is
The restriction to variations is the surjective linear map , since has full row rank. Thus is a regular value of . The regular level set theorem now shows that
is an embedded submanifold of , of dimension .
For , let , viewed as a nonzero by matrix. This defines a smooth map . Its pulled-back fiber is
so the evident fiberwise identity gives an isomorphism of vector bundles .
If were a trivial vector bundle, its pullback would be trivial. A trivial rank-two bundle has a nowhere-zero section, whereas the assumed form of the Hairy ball theorem says that the tangent bundle does not. Hence is nontrivial.
A submersion is a smooth map between manifolds for which
is surjective at every .
The local submersion theorem says that around every there are coordinates centered at and centered at in which
To prove it, surjectivity lets us choose source coordinates such that are independent. Complete them by source coordinates and define
The derivative of is invertible at , so the inverse function theorem makes a local coordinate system; in these coordinates is the displayed projection.
For , the fiber is locally given by
These are slice coordinates, so is an embedded submanifold of dimension .
Projectable vector field 2026-10-06
A vector field is projectable through a smooth map between manifolds if there is a smooth vector field on with for every . Agreement on fibres is necessary. For a surjective submersion it is also sufficient: smooth local sections of the submersion express locally as and prove its smoothness. An arbitrary non-surjective map may instead give a field only along its image, with extension to requiring additional choices.
A pullback of a smooth function composes a function on the target with a smooth map between manifolds, producing a function on the source. It needs no inverse map. Acting on the pulled-back function defines the differential of a smooth map intrinsically as a map of derivations.
Pullback tangent bundle 2026-10-06
For a smooth map between manifolds , the pullback vector bundle has fibre at . A smooth section is a vector field along a map. It allows one to differentiate maps and curves without requiring them to be invertible.
Pushforward of a curve 2026-10-06
A pushforward of a curve composes a parametrized curve in the source with a smooth map between manifolds. Its tangent is the image of the original tangent under the differential of a smooth map. A constant image curve has zero tangent, so a general smooth map need not preserve regularity of curves.
For a vector field on , its pushforward by a smooth map between manifolds is the vector field along a map defined by . Acting on a function on , it satisfies . For a diffeomorphism this defines a vector field on by evaluation at . For a general map there need not be a single vector at each image point: , gives , with opposite values over .
Vector field along a map 2026-10-06
A vector field along a smooth map between manifolds assigns smoothly to each . It is a section of the pullback tangent bundle, not necessarily a vector field on . Along a curve , the velocity is such a section.