An introduction to manifolds (Q2457370)

The textbook under review is very well-writen and self contained. Requiring only minimal undergraduate prerequisites, it can be read by a novice. It extends the calculus of curves and surfaces to higher dimensions. The higher dimensional analogues of smooth curves and surfaces are called manifolds. The book is structured in 8 parts. Part I deals with Euclidean spaces. The author recalls classical results on \(C^\infty\) and analytic functions and Taylor's theorem with remainders. Vector fields in \({\mathbb R}^n\) are introduced as derivations. The study of alternating \(k\)-linear functions leads to the notion of differential forms on \({\mathbb R}^n\). Part II is devoted to manifolds. Intuitively, a manifold is a generalization of curves and surfaces to arbitrary dimensions. There are many different kinds of manifolds: topologivcal manifolds, \(C^k\)-manifolds, analytic manifolds, complex manifolds, etc. This book is concerned mainly with smooth (\(C^\infty\)) manifolds. Topological and smooth manifolds are introduced. Interesting examples are given. Smooth functions and maps on a manifold are studied and quotient manifolds are investigated. As applications, the real projective space and Grassmannian are constructed. A vector space, called the tangent space \(T_pM\), is associated to any point \(p\) on a manifold \(M\). This is studied in Part III. A vector in \(T_pM\) can be viewed as a tangent vector in \(p\) to a curve on \(M\). The notion of a submanifold is defined and it is shown that the zero set of a function and the regular level set of a map on a manifold \(M\) are submanifolds, respectively. Interesting examples of submanifolds are given. Immersions and submersions of manifolds are defined. The tangent bundle \(TM\) of a manifold \(M\) is the disjoint union of all the tangent spaces of \(M\). It is a \(2n\)-dimensional manifold, where dim \(M=n\). As a generalization, the notion a vector bundle is introduced. A section of the tangent bundle is called a vector field. Lie groups and Lie algebras are studied in Part IV and differential forms on a manifold in Part V. An important topic is the integration on a manifold (Part VI). By using the orientation on a manifold, the integral of a differential form on a manifold is defined. Stokes' theorem and Green's theorem are proved. In vector calculus one needs to know if a vector field on an open set \(D\) in \({\mathbb R}^3\) is the gradient of a function or is the curl of another vector field. By the correspondence between vector fields and differential forms, this translates into the question of whether a differential form \(\omega\) on \(D\) is exact. A necessary condition is that \(\omega\) should be closed. The extent to which a closed form is not exact is measured by the de Rham cohomology, which is the most important diffeomorphism invariant of a manifold. In Part VII the author defines the de Rham cohomology, proves its basic properties and computes the de Rham cohomology of the real line and the unit circle.The long exact sequence in cohomology is constructed. In particular, the Mayer-Vietoris sequence is derived. As an application, the Euler characteristic can be computed. The homotopy axiom is a powerful tool for computing de Rham cohomology. For instance, the cohomology of \({\mathbb R}^n\), the cohomology of a torus, the cohomology of a surface of genus \(g\) are computed. The homotopy axiom is proved in the last chapter of this part. Along the way the reader acquires the knowledge and skills necessary for further study of geometry and topology. The requisite point-set topology is included in an appendix of twenty pages in Part VIII; other appendices review facts from real analysis and linear algebra. Hints and solutions are provided to many of the exercises and problems. This work may be used as the text for a one-semester graduate or advanced undergraduate course, as well as by students engaged in self-study.