Under the usual bounded-domain hypotheses, with piecewise smooth boundary and a sufficiently smooth vector field, the divergence theorem states
where is outward. Apply it to and use the product rule to obtain
For uniqueness, let for two classical solutions with the same Dirichlet boundary data. Then and on the boundary. Taking , gives Green's first identity in the form
The continuous nonnegative integrand must vanish, so is constant on each connected component. The zero boundary data make every such constant zero. Thus the solution of the Dirichlet problem for the Laplace equation is unique, if it exists. This establishes Uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem; existence is assumed. Boundedness, or suitable conditions at infinity, is needed: on an unbounded half-space the harmonic function has zero boundary values but is not identically zero.
For a continuously differentiable vector field on all of , the necessary and sufficient condition for a conservative vector field is . Necessity follows from equality of mixed partial derivatives of a potential; sufficiency uses the being a simply connected space. On a general domain the topology cannot be omitted.
Here the relevant mixed partial derivatives are
Thus the curl vanishes. Integrating the first component in gives . Matching the second component gives , hence . Matching the last component forces . A potential of a conservative vector field with the convention is consequently
If a physical potential is defined instead through , it is .
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.
Use the positive Laplace-Beltrami operator . A Riemannian submersion is a surjective smooth submersion for which, at every , the restriction of to is a linear isometry onto . The spaces and are its vertical and horizontal spaces. Its fibres are totally geodesic submanifolds precisely when is vertical for vertical vector fields : their second fundamental form vanishes. Equivalently, a geodesic initially tangent to a fibre remains in that fibre while defined.
For a smooth , its basic function is constant along each fibre. The Riemannian gradient of is the horizontal lift of a vector field through a submersion of , since
for horizontal , and for vertical . In particular no derivative of in a vertical direction occurs.
Here is the needed connection fact, which also follows directly from the Koszul formula: for horizontal lifts of vector fields on , the horizontal component of projects to . To see this, pair the Koszul formula with a third horizontal lift . The horizontal inner products are pulled back from , and the horizontal components of their Lie brackets of vector fields project to the brackets on . Thus all six terms are the pullbacks of the corresponding terms on .
Choose an adapted Riemannian orthonormal frame , with the horizontal lifts. Using , the connection fact gives
For a vertical , both and , the latter because the fibres are totally geodesic submanifolds. Taking the negative metric trace of the Riemannian Hessian therefore proves the basic-function Laplacian identity
This identity is local and does not require compactness. Vanishing mean curvature of the fibres would already suffice; total geodesicity makes each vertical summand vanish separately.
For the discrete eigenspace assertion, assume the two Riemannian manifolds are closed manifolds. Without a discrete spectral realization, an unrestricted noncompact version need not have an eigenbasis. The projections of the Riemannian product are Riemannian submersions with totally geodesic submanifolds as fibres. Its Levi-Civita connection splits into the two factor connections. Consequently its positive Laplace-Beltrami operator is
The cross term in the product rule for the positive Laplace-Beltrami operator is zero because the two factor Riemannian gradients are orthogonal.
We use the standard compact elliptic compact elliptic spectral theorem: the positive Laplace-Beltrami operator on a closed manifold is self-adjoint, has compact resolvent, and has a complete orthonormal eigenbasis of smooth eigenfunctions, with finite-dimensional eigenspaces and eigenvalues tending to infinity. Let and . Fubini's theorem and completeness on each factor show that form a complete orthonormal basis of . For example, a function orthogonal to all these products has, for each , zero -coefficient as an function, hence is zero.
The displayed operator identity makes an eigenfunction with eigenvalue . Conversely, if , self-adjointness of the positive Laplace-Beltrami operator gives
All other coefficients vanish. Only finitely many pairs can have , since both spectra are nonnegative and have finitely many eigenvalues below any fixed bound. Thus the product Laplacian eigenspace decomposition is
The tensor product summands are mutually orthogonal; their elements are actual smooth eigenfunctions, so this is an equality of eigenspaces, not just a formal expansion.
Let be the local flow of the smooth vector field , with and . The flow definition of the Lie derivative of a tensor field is
For a tensor field of type , the mixed tensor pullback transports the tensor at back to : it applies to every contravariant factor and to every covariant factor. Thus every difference quotient belongs to the same tensor space at . This definition gives another tensor field of the same type and uses no choice of affine connection. The tensor Lie derivative is defined wherever the local flow exists, including points where vanishes.
For a smooth function, pullback of a smooth function is composition. The chain rule gives
For a vector field , use any local coordinates. To first order,
Multiplying this inverse differential by gives
Thus
This is the Lie bracket of vector fields, whose action on a function is .
Expand . Using the tensor Lie derivative of functions, vectors and covectors and its Leibniz rule gives
The contravariant slot has a minus sign and the covariant slot a plus sign.
For the commutator identity for Lie derivatives, put . The commutator of two tensor derivations is itself a tensor derivation, and commutes with tensor contractions. On a function, . On a vector field ,
by the Jacobi identity, which follows here by expanding the commutators of the operators acting on functions. For a type tensor, is a vector field, and contraction compatibility gives
As this holds for every , . Therefore
The derivation argument also establishes the identity for arbitrary tensor types by applying it to covector–vector pairings and then to tensor products.
The pure gravitational action is invariant under diffeomorphisms. An infinitesimal diffeomorphism generated by a compactly supported vector field changes the metric by its tensor Lie derivative,
Using symmetry of and the variational expression already derived,
As is arbitrary, the off-shell metric divergence identity is
This Noether identity follows for every metric tensor without imposing either the gravitational field equation or the matter equations. It is a consequence of the metric action's diffeomorphism invariance, not a conclusion requiring a long component calculation.
Acting on the column gives the faithful Matrix Lie group representation
Multiplication and inversion are
Thus is the real affine group. Differentiating the matrices at the identity gives its Lie algebra
With
the matrix commutator is , and .
The left Maurer-Cartan form and its right analogue are
For a constant , left translation leaves unchanged, and right translation leaves unchanged. Taking their dual vector fields gives
The first pair consists of left-invariant vector fields; the second consists of right-invariant vector fields. These are the invariant frames of the real affine group. Computing their Lie brackets of vector fields yields
All brackets of a field with itself vanish. The sign difference is necessary: evaluation at the identity identifies left-invariant vector fields with the matrix Lie algebra as a homomorphism, whereas right-invariant vector fields realize the opposite Lie algebra. Equivalently, is a homomorphism for the same matrix commutator. There is no convention in which these particular coordinate fields both have the positive structure constant while retaining the usual Lie bracket of vector fields.
The Maurer-Cartan equation gives the same check. If , then
For , instead
Thus the left equation is and the right equation is , explaining the opposite bracket signs directly.
Finally, the two given matrix curves are and . Their left action on a general group element is
Differentiating at gives and respectively. Hence Left translations on a Lie group are generated by right-invariant vector fields. More generally, the velocity of is , which is right-invariant because left and right multiplication commute. In the other direction, the flows generate left-invariant vector fields and are right translations on a Lie group.
Write for the total variation seminorm on a domain. For a locally integrable real function its dual definition is
The bounded-variation space consists of functions with finite , equipped with . In the equivalent distributional derivative description, is a finite vector-valued Radon measure and is its total variation measure.
To establish completeness of the bounded-variation space, let be Cauchy in this norm. Completeness of gives in . Given , choose so that whenever . For fixed , the given lower semicontinuity yields
Since , we obtain . In particular has finite variation; the triangle inequality then puts in the BV space. The same bound proves convergence in the full norm, so this is a Banach space.
For the disk data, put and assume . The exact total variation denoising of a disk is
Here is the positive part. A total variation calibration certifies global optimality, including competitors that are not radial or piecewise constant. Define the bounded vector field
It has . Its normal component is continuous across the circle, so the distributional divergence has no extra boundary measure. Direct differentiation gives . The dual definition implies : for the standard domain one can cut off at radius , with the error bounded by , and then smooth the test field. In the larger homogeneous bounded-variation space, the same error is bounded by . Thus both usual whole-plane formulations give the same certificate.
Use the perimeter identity and . If , then and . Consequently every competitor satisfies
If , replace by . Its norm is still at most one, its divergence is , and equality in the calibration holds at . The identical comparison proves optimality and uniqueness of zero, including the threshold . The only general results used are completeness of , lower semicontinuity of variation, the indicator-perimeter identity, the distributional integration-by-parts/dual variation formula and the quadratic norm identity. For , the unique squared-error minimizer is simply .
For an oriented piecewise smooth surface and a continuously differentiable vector field on a neighborhood of it, Stokes theorem states
The oriented surface element and boundary direction must agree by the right-hand rule. Every boundary component is included; for an upward-oriented graph over an annulus the outer boundary is anticlockwise and the inner boundary clockwise when viewed from above.
Rotational symmetry of the vector field means : rotations fixing force the field to be parallel to , and rotations between directions make its magnitude depend only on . Its flux integral over the radius- sphere is . Applying the flux identity from part (i) to the ball, with the spherically symmetric source, gives
Therefore the origin-regular spherical Poisson flux law is
Only source values at occur. Changing the exterior source can change the scalar potential by an interior constant, but cannot change this radial gradient. Regularity on all of , inherited from the Poisson equation setting, matters: on a punctured domain alone an additional would have zero divergence away from the origin and would not be fixed by the local source. It is excluded here by the origin regularity needed for the ball flux identity.
Apply the product rule and the preceding gradient formula to the vector field . Summing over the repeated index gives
Here for the Kronecker delta. Thus the divergence and curl of a radial vector field give, in any dimension,
Use for . On this path , so its line integral is
The first two components of the curl vanish because the field is independent of and has zero third component. Writing , its third curl component is
Thus this azimuthal inverse-radius vector field is a curl-free vector field on , but its line integral is not path independent. This domain is not simply connected: the circle links the removed axis. A spanning disk through the axis is inadmissible for Stokes theorem, since the vector field is undefined there. Zero curl alone does not force global path independence.
A Levi-Civita connection on a Riemannian manifold is a covariant derivative that is a torsion-free connection, , and a metric connection, . A covariant derivative is -linear in , real linear in , and obeys .
Combining metric compatibility for the cyclic triples and eliminating reversed derivatives with the torsion identity gives the Koszul formula
Since is nondegenerate, this determines uniquely. For existence, use the right-hand side to define : expansion of the Lie bracket of vector fields shows it is -linear in , hence defines a smooth one-form, which the musical isomorphism converts to a smooth vector field. The same expansion shows and . Subtracting the formula with exchanged gives torsion zero; adding its versions for exchanged gives metric compatibility. Thus it is a Levi-Civita connection. Equivalently its coefficients in a manifold chart are the Christoffel symbols
The intrinsically defined Koszul formula ensures these local expressions fit together. This proves the fundamental theorem of Riemannian geometry.
The product Riemannian metric on is
The two factor tangent spaces are orthogonal, and the sum is positive definite. Lift from and from . We check against lifted local frame fields from both factors, which together span each product tangent space.
If is lifted from , then , while depends only on , so . Also and is horizontal, hence orthogonal to . Every term in the Koszul formula is zero. If is lifted from , and depends only on , so . Now and is vertical, hence orthogonal to . Again every term is zero. Thus is orthogonal to both spanning frame families, and positive definiteness yields
This calculation uses the lifts' independence of the other factor coordinates; a vector field with varying coefficients in those coordinates can have a nonzero mixed derivative.
The Hamiltonian flow of solves
Compactness and the absence of a boundary make this smooth vector field complete, so the flow exists for all real . The defining equation and Cartan's magic formula give
Therefore the pullback of a differential form differentiation rule yields
so . Pullback commutes with the wedge product of differential forms, and consequently
Thus the flow preserves the symplectic volume, in fact the entire symplectic form.