Manifold Atlas:Definition of “manifold”

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A manifold $M$ as above is often called a topological manifold for emphasis or clarity.
A manifold $M$ as above is often called a topological manifold for emphasis or clarity.
Typically, but not necessarly, the word “manifold” will mean "topological manifold with extra structure", be it [[Wikipedia:Piecewise_linear_manifold|piecewise-linear]], [[Wikipedia:Differential_manifold|smooth]], [[Wikipedia:Complex_manifold|complex]], [[Wikipedia:Symplectic_manifold|symplectic]], [[Wikipedia:Contact_manifold|contact]], [[Wikipedia:Riemannian_manifold|Riemannian]], etc. The extra structure will be emphasised or suppressed in notation and vocabulary as is appropriate. We briefly review some common categories of manifolds below.
Typically, but not necessarly, the word “manifold” will mean "topological manifold with extra structure", be it [[Wikipedia:Piecewise_linear_manifold|piecewise-linear]], [[Wikipedia:Differential_manifold|smooth]], [[Wikipedia:Complex_manifold|complex]], [[Wikipedia:Symplectic_manifold|symplectic]], [[Wikipedia:Contact_manifold|contact]], [[Wikipedia:Riemannian_manifold|Riemannian]], etc. The extra structure will be emphasised or suppressed in notation and vocabulary as is appropriate. We briefly review some common categories of manifolds below.
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== Atlases of charts ==
== Atlases of charts ==
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A $\Cat$-isomorphism $(M, A) \cong (N, B)$ is a homeomorphism $f: M \cong N$ which is a $\Cat$ morphism when viewed in every pair of charts in $A$ and $B$.
A $\Cat$-isomorphism $(M, A) \cong (N, B)$ is a homeomorphism $f: M \cong N$ which is a $\Cat$ morphism when viewed in every pair of charts in $A$ and $B$.
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== Riemannian Manifolds ==
== Riemannian Manifolds ==
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Revision as of 14:00, 28 September 2009

1 Introduction

This page defines the term “manifold” as used in the Manifold Atlas. We assume that all manifolds are of a fixed dimension n.

Definition 1.1. An n-dimensional manifold M is a second countable, Hausdorff space for which every point x \in M has a neighbourhood U_x homeomorphic to an open subset of \Rr^n_+ := \{ v \in \Rr^n | v_1 \geq 0 \}.

  • The interior of M, denoted \mathop{\mathrm{int}}(M), is the subset of points for which U_x is an open subset of \Rr^n.
  • The boundary of M, written \partial M, is the complement of \mathop{\mathrm{int}}(M).
  • M is called closed if M is compact and \partial M is empty.

A manifold M as above is often called a topological manifold for emphasis or clarity. Typically, but not necessarly, the word “manifold” will mean "topological manifold with extra structure", be it piecewise-linear, smooth, complex, symplectic, contact, Riemannian, etc. The extra structure will be emphasised or suppressed in notation and vocabulary as is appropriate. We briefly review some common categories of manifolds below.

2 Atlases of charts

We give a unified presentation of the definition of piecewise linear, smooth and complex manifolds M. In the complex case, we assume that the dimension of M is even and that the boundary of M is empty.

Recall that a chart on a topological manifold M is a homeomporphism \phi_\alpha : U_\alpha \to V_\alpha from an open subset U_\alpha of M to an open subset V_\alpha of \Rr^n_+. The transition function defined by two charts \phi_\alpha and \phi_\beta is the homeomorphism

\displaystyle  \phi_{\alpha\beta} := \phi_\alpha \circ \phi_\beta^{-1}|_{\phi_{\beta}(U_\alpha \cap U_\beta)} : \phi_\beta(U_\alpha \cap U_\beta) \longrightarrow \phi_\alpha(U_\alpha \cap U_\beta).

An atlas for M is a collection of charts A = \{ (U_\alpha, \phi_\alpha)\} such that the U_\alpha cover M.

Let \Cat denote either the piecewise linear, smooth or complex categories where by “smooth" we indicate C^\infty maps. An atlas is a \Cat Atlas if every transition function defined by the that atlas is a \Cat function: that is, we require every \phi_{\alpha, \beta} to be either piecewise linear, smooth of class C^\infty or holomorphic. Two \Cat atlases are compatible if their union again forms a \Cat atlas and by Zorn's Lemma each \Cat atlas defines a unique maximal \Cat atlas.

Definition 2.1. A \Cat-manifold (M, A) is a manifold M together with a maximal \Cat atlas A.

A \Cat-isomorphism (M, A) \cong (N, B) is a homeomorphism f: M \cong N which is a \Cat morphism when viewed in every pair of charts in A and B.

3 Riemannian Manifolds

A Riemannian metric g on a smooth manifold M is a smooth family of scalar products

\displaystyle  g_x : T_xM \times T_xM \longmapsto \Rr

defined on the tangent spaces T_xM for each x in M. This means that for each pair of smooth vector fields v_1 and v_2 on M the map

\displaystyle  M \to \Rr, ~~~ x \longmapsto g_x(v_1(x),v_2(x))

is smooth.

Definition 3.1. A Riemannian manifold (M, g) is a smooth manifold M together with a Riemannian metric g.

An isometry between Riemannian manifolds is a diffeomorphism whose differential preserves the metric g.

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