Questions tagged [smooth-manifolds]

For questions about smooth manifolds, a topological manifold with a maximal smooth atlas.

A topological manifold of dimension $n$ is a Hausdorff, second countable topological space $X$ such that each $x \in X$ has a neighbourhood homeomorphic to an open subset of $\mathbb{R}^n$.

A smooth atlas on a topological manifold $X$ is a collection of pairs $\left\lbrace(U_{\alpha}, \varphi_{\alpha})\right\rbrace_{\alpha\in A}$ where $U_{\alpha}$ is an open subset of $X$ and $\varphi_{\alpha} : U_{\alpha} \to \varphi_{\alpha}(U_{\alpha}) \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n$ is a homeomorphism such that $\bigcup\limits_{\alpha\in A}U_{\alpha} = X$.

A topological manifold with a maximal smooth atlas is called a smooth manifold.

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What's the intuition with partitions of unity?

I've been studying Spivak's Calculus on Manifolds and I'm really not getting what's behind partitions of unity. Spivak introduces the topic with the following theorem: Let $A\subset \Bbb R^n$ and let $\mathcal{O}$ be an open cover of $A$. Then…
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Properly discontinuous action: equivalent definitions

Let us define a properly discontinuous action of a group $G$ on a topological space $X$ as an action such that every $x \in X$ has a neighborhood $U$ such that $gU \cap U \neq \emptyset$ implies $g = e$. I would like to prove that this property is…
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Are diffeomorphic smooth manifolds truly equivalent?

It seems to be an often repeated, "folklore-ish" statement, that diffeomorphism is an equivalence relation on smooth manifolds, and two smooth manifolds that are diffeomorphic are indistinguishable in terms of their smooth atlases. There is a…
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Proving that the pullback map commutes with the exterior derivative

I'm trying to prove that the pullback map $\phi^{\ast}$ induced by a map $\phi:M\rightarrow N$ commutes with the exterior derivative. Here is my attempt so far: Let $\omega\;\in\Omega^{r}(N)$ and let $\phi :M\rightarrow N$. Also, let…
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Explain densities to me please!

When it comes to integration on manifolds, I speak two languages. The first is of course the language of differential forms, which is something I am relatively well acquainted with. The second language is what is often used in general relativity…
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Elementary proof of the fact that any orientable 3-manifold is parallelizable

A parallelizable manifold $M$ is a smooth manifold such that there exist smooth vector fields $V_1,...,V_n$ where $n$ is the dimension of $M$, such that at any point $p\in M$, the tangent vectors $V_1(p),...,V_n(p)$ provide a basis for the tangent…
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Origins of Differential Geometry and the Notion of Manifold

The title can potentially lend itself to a very broad discussion, so I'll try to narrow this post down to a few specific questions. I've been studying differential geometry and manifold theory a couple of years now. Over this time the notion of a…
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Why is the tangent bundle orientable?

Let $M$ be a smooth manifold. How do I show that the tangent bundle $TM$ of $M$ is orientable?
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Number of Differentiable Structures on a Smooth Manifold

On John Lee's book, Introduction to Smooth Manifolds, I stumbled upon the next problem (problem 1.6): Let $M$ be a nonempty topological manifold of dimension $n \geq 1$. If $M$ has a smooth structure, show that it has uncountably many distinct…
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Meaning of derivatives of vector fields

I have a doubt about the real meaning of the derivative of a vector field. This question seems silly at first but the doubt came when I was studying the definition of tangent space. If I understood well a vector is a directional derivative operator,…
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how to compute the de Rham cohomology of the punctured plane just by Calculus?

I have a classmate learning algebra.He ask me how to compute the de Rham cohomology of the punctured plane $\mathbb{R}^2\setminus\{0\}$ by an elementary way,without homotopy type,without Mayer-Vietoris,just by Calculus. I have tried and failed.Is…
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Orientability of $m\times n$ matrices with rank $r$

I know that $$M_{m,n,r} = \{ A \in {\rm Mat}(m \times n,\Bbb R) \mid {\rm rank}(A)= r\}$$is a submanifold of $\Bbb R^{mn}$ of codimension $(m-r)(n-r)$. For example, we have that $M_{2, 3, 1}$ is non-orientable, while some others are, such as…
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Can every manifold be turned into a Lie group?

I am studying Lie theory and just thought of this random question out of curiosity. Can any manifold be turned into a Lie group? More precisely, given a manifold $G$, can we always construct (or prove the existence of) some smooth map $m:G\times…
WillG
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Lee, Introduction to Smooth Manifolds Solutions

Does anybody know where I could find the solutions to the exercises from the book Lee, Introduction to Smooth Manifolds? I searched on the Internet and found only selected solutions but not all of them and not from the author.
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Can we recover a compact smooth manifold from its ring of smooth functions?

It is well-known that if $X$ is a reasonably nice topological space (compact Hausdorff, say) then we can recover $X$ from the ring $C(X)$ of continuous functions $X\to\mathbb R$; see this MSE question for a discussion and problem 26 in the first…
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