Handbook of normal frames and coordinates (Q2498057)

This book assumes some basic knowledge of multilinear algebra and mathematical analysis of functions of several variables. It can serve as a reference manual, introduction and review of normal frames and normal coordinates. It contains an explanation of preliminary notions such as differentiable manifolds, vector bundles and connections. A frame on a differentiable manifold \(M\) equipped with an affine connection is called normal on a subset \(U \subset M\) if the Christoffel symbols of this connection vanish on \(U.\) This notion is generalized to vector bundles and vector bundle connections. The existence and unicity of normal frames and coordinates, especially if \(U\) is a single point or a path, are investigated in many instances (Riemannian geometry, general affine connections and also vector bundles equipped by a connection). The book contains examples of many types of frames and/or coordinates such as Riemannian-Fermi- and geodesic ones. Some historical remarks about the development of this topic are included as well. In the first three chapters, normal frames and coordinates on manifolds are investigated (Chapters I, II, III). In chapters IV and V, the theory of normal frames and coordinates for vector bundles and vector bundle connections is systematically introduced. The book contains several physical applications, which are based on a connection between the physical notion ``inertial system'' and the mathematical notion ``normal frame'' as well as the notion of (an)holonomicity. The book also contains an author, a notational and a subject index. It is eminently suitable for mathematicians and physicists who need some information about normal/inertial frames and coordinates.