Tautological bundle

The tautological bundle over a projective space has as its fiber over a line precisely that line. The real tautological line bundle over ${\mathbb{RP}}^m$ has first Stiefel-Whitney class equal to the degree-one generator.

Over ${\mathrm{Gr}}_k({\mathbb{C}}^N)$ this rank-k complex vector bundle has fibre W at the point W. In a chart of planes that are graphs of maps from a fixed k-plane, $(A,w)\mapsto (\mathrm{graph}A,w+Aw)$ gives a local trivialization. The direct-limit bundle over the infinite Grassmannian classifies rank-k bundles over compact Hausdorff spaces.

A partition of unity and local orthonormal frames embed a bundle over compact Hausdorff X in a finite trivial bundle. Its fibre images give a classifying map pulling back the complex tautological bundle on a Grassmannian. Isomorphic bundles give homotopic maps by interpolating two embeddings in orthogonal coordinate blocks. Homotopic maps give isomorphic bundles because uniformly close orthogonal projections identify their image bundles along a finite subdivision of the homotopy interval.

The contractible universal frame bundle gives ${\pi }_4(B{U}_2)\cong {\pi }_3(U_2)$ and simple connectedness of $B{U}_2$. The determinant fibration $S{U}_2\to U_2\to S^1$ identifies ${\pi }_3(U_2)$ with ${\pi }_3(S{U}_2)$. Since $S{U}_2\cong S^3$, this is $\mathbb{Z}$. Hence the classification of complex vector bundles by a Grassmannian gives the displayed bijection of isomorphism classes; fixed-rank classes do not acquire a group operation from Whitney sum.

Let P,Q be continuous orthogonal projection matrices of equal rank on a common trivial complex vector bundle, with the displayed bound at every base point. Restricting Q to the image of P is injective: if Qv=0, then $v=(P-Q)v$ contradicts the norm bound unless v=0. Equal dimensions give a continuously invertible vector bundle isomorphism. Compactness applies this observation uniformly to a homotopy of image planes.

For finitely many orthonormal local trivializations $t_i$ and a subordinate partition of unity ${\rho }_i$, the displayed map embeds a rank-k complex vector bundle isometrically in $X\times {\mathbb{C}}^{kr}$. Outside the support of each ${\rho }_i$ its component is zero. Its continuous image planes give a finite-dimensional Grassmannian map and identify the original bundle with a tautological pullback.

Over complex projective space, its fibre at a line $\ell \subseteq {\mathbb{C}}^{n+1}$ is $\ell$ itself. It is a holomorphic line bundle contained in the trivial bundle. Its dual is the hyperplane line bundle.

For any complex line bundle $L$, a nonzero dual vector $\varphi \in L_b^{\ast }$ determines the unique $v\in L_b$ with $\varphi (v)=1$. In local coordinates this is fiber inversion $a\mapsto a^{-1}$, giving a smooth projection-preserving diffeomorphism between the complements of the zero sections of $L^{\ast }$ and $L$. It is not a fiber-linear bundle isomorphism. In particular this condition cannot distinguish the tautological line on the complex projective line from its dual.

For $\zeta =z_2/z_1$ and $\eta =1/\zeta$, the tautological frames $(1,\zeta )$ and $(\eta ,1)$ differ by $1/\zeta$. Normalize their ambient Hermitian form norms; the resulting frames differ by the displayed phase. The unit circle total space is $S^3\subset {\mathbb{C}}^2$ and its projection to the complex projective line is the Hopf fibration. The transition of the dual line is the reciprocal phase.

The complex tautological line bundle is a holomorphic subbundle of the trivial bundle with fibre ${\mathbb{C}}^{n+1}$. A global holomorphic section therefore gives $n+1$ global holomorphic functions on compact connected Complex projective space. The maximum modulus principle makes them constant. The constant vector must lie in every projective line through the origin, whose intersection is zero for $n\ge 1$. For $n=0$, the base is one point and the section space is instead $\mathbb{C}$.

The dual of the complex tautological line bundle. On the complex projective line the induced frames satisfy $e_1=w{e}_0$ on the overlap of its standard affine charts.

The First Chern class of the hyperplane line bundle. On Complex projective space it generates degree-two integral cohomology, and on ${\mathbb{CP}}^n$ its top power evaluates as one on the complex-oriented fundamental class.

Let $X$ be a nonempty positive-dimensional compact complex submanifold of Complex projective space. On a positive-dimensional connected component choose a hyperplane meeting, but not containing, that component. Its linear equation gives a holomorphic section of ${\mathcal{O}}_X(1)$ with a zero and with a nonzero value. For $m>0$, its $m$th power cannot be a section of a trivial holomorphic line bundle, since such sections are constant on the compact connected component. Negative powers are also nontrivial by duality. Every positive-dimensional compact projective component meets every hyperplane: otherwise its affine coordinate functions would all be constant.

For positive $k$ take the $k$th tensor power of the hyperplane line bundle; for negative $k$ take the corresponding power of its dual; for $k=0$ take the trivial line bundle. On the complex projective line, global sections for $k\ge 0$ correspond to polynomials of degree at most $k$ and form a space of dimension $k+1$.

Its fibre over a point of quaternionic projective space is the quaternionic line represented by that point. As a real vector bundle it has rank four, and its unit sphere bundle is $S^{4n+3}\to {\mathbb{HP}}^n$. Right multiplication by a chosen imaginary unit equips it with complex rank two. Under the complex inclusion into quaternionic projective space, it restricts to $L\oplus \overline{L}$, where $L$ is the complex tautological bundle. Thus its Euler class restricts to $-c_1(L^{\ast }{)}^2$.

Over Real projective space ${\mathbb{RP}}^n$, the real tautological line bundle isOn the standard chart $U_i=\{[x]:x_i\ne 0\}$, let $s_i([x])=x/x_i$. A local trivialization sends $([x],t)$ to $([x],t{s}_i([x]))$, with inverse $([x],v)\mapsto ([x],v_i)$. These maps prove that this is a real line bundle. Its unit sphere bundle is the antipodal map quotient $S^n\to {\mathbb{RP}}^n$. Its mod-two Euler class of a real line bundle is the degree-one generator of the mod-two cohomology ring of real projective space.