Basic Elements Of Differential Geometry And Topology

Basic Elements of Differential Geometry and Topology

One service mathematics has rendered the 'Et moi ..., si j'avait su comment en revenir, je n'y serais point aile.' human race. It has put common sense back Jules Verne where it belongs, on the topmost shelf next to the dusty canister labelled 'discarded n- sense'. The series is divergent; therefore we may be able to do something with it. Eric T. Bell O. Heaviside Matht"natics is a tool for thought. A highly necessary tool in a world where both feedback and non linearities abound. Similarly, all kinds of parts of mathematics seNe as tools for other parts and for other sciences. Applying a simple rewriting rule to the quote on the right above one finds such statements as: 'One service topology has rendered mathematical physics .. .'; 'One service logic has rendered com puter science .. .'; 'One service category theory has rendered mathematics .. .'. All arguably true. And all statements obtainable this way form part of the raison d'etre of this series

Fundamentals of Differential Geometry

The present book aims to give a fairly comprehensive account of the fundamentals of differential manifolds and differential geometry. The size of the book influenced where to stop, and there would be enough material for a second volume (this is not a threat). At the most basic level, the book gives an introduction to the basic concepts which are used in differential topology, differential geometry, and differential equations. In differential topology, one studies for instance homotopy classes of maps and the possibility of finding suitable differen tiable maps in them (immersions, embeddings, isomorphisms, etc. ). One may also use differentiable structures on topological manifolds to deter mine the topological structure of the manifold (for example, it la Smale [Sm 67]). In differential geometry, one puts an additional structure on the differentiable manifold (a vector field, a spray, a 2-form, a Riemannian metric, ad lib. ) and studies properties connected especially with these objects. Formally, one may say that one studies properties invariant under the group of differentiable automorphisms which preserve the additional structure. In differential equations, one studies vector fields and their in tegral curves, singular points, stable and unstable manifolds, etc. A certain number of concepts are essential for all three, and are so basic and elementary that it is worthwhile to collect them together so that more advanced expositions can be given without having to start from the very beginnings.

Basic Elements of Differential Geometry and Topology