A course in differential geometry and Lie groups (Q1597946)

From the author's preface: The book covers the traditional topics of differentiable manifolds, tensor fields, Lie groups, integration on manifolds and a short but motivated introduction to basic differential and Riemannian geometry. This book will be suitable for a course for students of Physics and Mathematics at the graduate level of western universities or at M. Phil. level of Indian universities. While the topics are traditional, the discerning reader will find the approach to the topics and the proofs at many places quite novel. Our main emphasis is on the geometric meaning of the concepts, so that the reader will feel confident and acquire a working knowledge. For this reason motivations are given, many simple exercises are included and illuminating nontrivial examples are discussed in detail. Some of the salient features of the book are the following: 1. Geometric and conceptual treatment of differential calculus with a wealth of nontrivial examples. 2. A thorough discussion of the much-used result on the existence, uniqueness and smooth dependence of solutions of ordinary differential equations on initial values. 3. Special care in introducing the concept of tangent space to a manifold. 4. An early and simultaneous treatment of Lie groups and related concepts as we develop the basic topics in differentiable manifolds. 5. An early and elementary proof of the fact that all classical groups are Lie groups. 6. A motivated and highly geometric proof of the Frobenius theorem. 7. A constant reconciliation of the classical treatment (such as tensor calculus of notation with modern approach. 8. Simple proofs of the hairy-ball theorem and Brouwer's fixed point theorem. 9. Construction of the manifold of constant curvature à la Chern. 10. Merits and comparison of different view points, whenever possible. In the reviewer's estimation, the book provides a basic and working knowledge of the essential topics in differential geometry and Lie groups. It is written in a clear and conversational style, so that the beginners can use it for self-study.