Covariant derivative
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Revision as of 11:37, 15 March 2013
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1 Definition
Let be a vector bundle over a smooth manifold and the space of smooth sections. A {\it covariant derivative} on is a bilinear map , , which is a tensor (linear over ) in the first argument and a {\it derivation} in the second argument:
where is a smooth function and a vector field on and a section of , and where is the ordinary derivative of the function in the direction of . By these properties, is defined locally and even pointwise regarding the first argument: For any we may define where is any (local) vector field with .
A covariant derivative has all properties of the ordinary directional derivative for functions with exception of the commutativity: For functions we have with , where is a local parametrization of and its -th partial derivative. Instead, for covariant derivatives, the commutator (with ) is nonzero in general, but it is only a tensor (rather than a differential operator), the curvature tensor.
Covariant derivatives are not tensors since they are derivations in the second argument, but two covariant derivative on differ by a tensor: defines a tensor .