Using the Levi-Civita symbol and the epsilon-delta identity,
Therefore
One particularly simple vector potential for is
Direct differentiation gives and .
Parametrize the curved cone by
The outward oriented surface element is
Substitution and integration over , give
Because , the divergence theorem predicts that the two outward fluxes sum to zero. On the top disk , and , so, with ,
as predicted.
The outward orientation on induces the stated anticlockwise orientation on , whereas the outward orientation on induces the reverse orientation. Since , Stokes theorem predicts
On , put . Then
verifying both identities.
Stokes theorem gives
For the upward orientation, the outer circle is counterclockwise from above and the inner circle is clockwise. On a counterclockwise circle of radius and height ,
The outer circle contributes . The inner circle would contribute counterclockwise and hence contributes with its induced clockwise orientation. Thus
agreeing with the direct calculation.
For and , the integrand is . Since
the Stokes theorem gives the signed planar area, and its absolute value gives the ordinary area.
The projection of the given curve is the astroid , , whose area is
The plane stretches area from its projection by . Hence
Since the magnetic field is , Stokes theorem gives, for any oriented surface bounded by ,
Under a gauge transformation , the integral changes by
because is closed. The flux expression is therefore gauge independent.
The integral of an exact differential form over the closed curve is zero by Stokes theorem, so the map is well defined on de Rham cohomology. It is surjective because the angular form has integral . If a closed one-form has zero integral, define
The zero period makes this definition -periodic, and . Thus the kernel is zero and
is an isomorphism.
For the curvature two-form
use the normalization
for the Second Chern form. Graded cyclicity of the trace gives and
On the other hand,
and
Thus the coefficient in the Chern-Simons 3-form must be
and
For the gauge transformation , use and the Maurer-Cartan equation. Expanding makes the terms linear and quadratic in cancel, leaving
Invariance of the matrix trace under conjugation then gives
A Yang-Mills instanton on has finite Euclidean action, smooth curvature in the interior, and sufficiently rapidly at infinity. Its connection therefore approaches a pure gauge on the asymptotic three-sphere,
up to a decaying correction, for a map . By Stokes theorem,
Writing gives and, for ,
Hence the instanton number as a winding number at infinity is
Under , this integer is the degree of a map between oriented manifolds . Reversing the trace or orientation convention reverses the displayed sign.
On the part with , write
This is the upper portion of a hyperboloid of one sheet. Choosing the outward orientation, whose normal points radially away from the -axis, the vector area element is
Its radial component is positive and its vertical component is negative. Reversing the normal reverses all the fluxes below.
For
the curl is
On the surface, , and therefore
Direct integration gives
To verify this with the Stokes theorem, note that on a circle of fixed ,
The induced boundary orientation runs in the negative direction on the top circle and the positive direction on the bottom circle. Hence
For , Stokes' theorem again reduces the flux to its two boundary circles. The outward orientation gives positive direction at , where , and negative direction at , where . Thus
The Maxwell equation , integrated over a fixed spanning surface , gives by Stokes theorem
Thus the electromotive force and magnetic flux obey Faraday's law
Finite energy requires and on the circle at spatial infinity. Writing there gives . The vortex number is the winding number
By Stokes theorem, the magnetic flux is quantized:
For the rotationally symmetric Abelian Higgs vortex ansatz, and give
After the angular integration, the Abelian Higgs model energy becomes
Completing the square in the two pairs of terms gives
Regularity at the origin and approach to the vacuum at infinity require
More precisely, and near the origin. The boundary term is , so
The bound is saturated exactly when both squares vanish, giving the radial Bogomolny vortex equations
The asymptotic value also makes the flux , so the ansatz has vortex number .
Expanding with the Levi-Civita symbol and the product rule gives
The Stokes theorem states
where the boundary orientation follows the right-hand rule about .
Apply it to . On , and . Substitution of the vector identity and contraction with leaves
The boundary integrand satisfies , proving the formula. The vector is the outward co-normal in the tangent plane of .
For the hemisphere, and . The projected divergence is , so the left side is
On the positively oriented equator, , hence and the boundary integral is also .
A field is irrotational when . In define
where is any path from to . The difference between two choices is the circulation around a closed loop. By the Stokes theorem it is the flux of through a spanning surface and hence zero. Thus is well-defined, , and differentiation gives .
If , every solution is
for an arbitrary differentiable scalar , since the difference is curl-free. A necessary condition is , because the divergence of a curl vanishes.
For forms of the same degree, define the Hodge inner product by
On a -form , define the codifferential
equivalently in dimension . If has degree , Stokes theorem on the compact boundaryless manifold gives
Rearranging and using the definition of gives
Thus is the formal adjoint of .
The Stokes theorem states that for an oriented smooth surface with positively oriented boundary ,
A field is conservative vector field if its line integral is path-independent, equivalently if every closed line integral vanishes. If , the fundamental theorem for line integrals gives
This is zero for every closed curve, so every globally defined gradient field is conservative.
Put . The hypothesis says that the exact two-form is anti-self-dual. Since is compact without boundary, Stokes theorem gives
Hence by the exact anti-self-dual form on a compact four-manifold argument. Since is the formal adjoint of ,
Therefore .
The metric on covectors is induced by the inverse matrix , and on -forms by the determinant pairing
The Riemannian volume form is the unique positive top form taking value one on every oriented orthonormal frame. The Hodge star operator is uniquely determined by
Nondegeneracy of the wedge pairing proves existence and uniqueness pointwise, and the smooth metric dependence makes a well-defined smooth bundle map.
On compactly supported forms, Stokes theorem and the graded Leibniz rule give
where ; this is the formal adjoint of . The Hodge Laplace-Beltrami operator is
For , the covector metric scales by , the -form metric by , and the volume form by . Therefore
If is constant, the two star factors in the codifferential contribute , so . Since is metric-independent,
With and , the critically coupled Abelian Higgs model energy in the conventions of the question is
Finite energy requires , , and at spatial infinity.
For the Derrick theorem test, preserve gauge covariance by defining
The magnetic, covariant-gradient, and potential energies scale as
Stationarity at requires , which is possible for a nonconstant finite-energy configuration. The oppositely scaling magnetic and potential terms therefore evade the usual Derrick obstruction and allow vortex solitons.
At infinity write . The condition gives , and the phase winding defines the Abelian Higgs vortex number
By Stokes theorem,
Finite Euclidean Yang-Mills action requires sufficiently rapidly at spatial infinity. Consequently the connection approaches a pure gauge,
under the convention of the question. Compactifying the asymptotic boundary identifies it with , while is itself topologically . Thus has an integer topological degree.
By and Stokes theorem, the instanton number is
up to the common simultaneous choice of trace and orientation signs. Smoothness and finite action are imposed in the interior, and selects an instanton or anti-instanton representative of the topological sector.
For an oriented surface with piecewise smooth closed boundary , and a vector field that is continuously differentiable on an open neighborhood of , Stokes theorem states
Here is the chosen unit normal vector. The orientation of follows the right-hand rule: with the right thumb pointing along , the fingers curl in the positive direction. Equivalently, walking along the boundary with one's head along leaves the surface on the left. Each boundary component receives this induced orientation.
Use the spherical coordinates parametrization
Then , so the outward unit normal vector is and the surface area element is . Since throughout this band, the vector field is smooth near it. The surface integral of the curl is
For the induced boundary orientation, the lower circle is traversed with increasing , and the upper circle with decreasing . One way to check the signs is that the outward conormal is at the lower circle and at the upper circle; the positive unit tangent vector is .
Along a circle of fixed , . Therefore the circulation is
which equals the boxed surface integral and verifies Stokes theorem with the required orientation.