Metric structures in differential geometry (Q4830004)

This book is based on the author's graduate-level lecture notes. The book does not require familiarity with elements of differential geometry, but it does assume a good grasp of general topology, advanced calculus and linear algebra. One of the strengths of this book is the fact that the author manages in a 220-page volume to cover important themes in Riemannian geometry and fiber bundles. Without sacrificing rigor and without omitting technical details, the author manages to present crucial results following a short path (to exemplify, it suffices to point out the proof of the Stokes' theorem and the generalized Gauss-Bonnet theorem). The book consists of six chapters. The first chapter is a nice introduction (of 55 pages) to differential geometry of manifolds. One begins with some basic definitions (differentiable atlas, smooth functions, tangent vectors) and proves that any open cover of a manifold admits a countable subordinate partition of unity, as well as the inverse and implicit function theorems. Submanifolds and submersions are introduced in the sixth section of this chapter. The next three sections are devoted to vector fields on a differentiable manifold, local flows of the vector fields, Lie derivative, integrable distributions and Frobenius' theorem. Next, tensor fields and differential forms are introduced. The last part of this chapter is dedicated to the theory of integration on an orientable manifold with boundary. Local and global versions of Stokes' theorem as well as some of its applications are given. The following two chapters are devoted to fiber bundles and homotopy theory of fibrations. Many results are proven in the category of topological manifolds. One starts with some definition and examples of fibre bundles. Vector bundles have been emphasized, although principal bundles are also discussed in detail. The homotopy lifting/covering properties, as well as Grassmannians and universal bundles are presented also in chapter 2. In the third chapter one starts with the tubular neighborhood theorem for a submanifold of a Euclidean space and proves that any continuous map between manifolds is homotopic to a differentiable one. Then are defined the homotopy groups and the homotopy sequence of a fibration is proved. This chapter concludes with a nice section on vector bundles over low-dimensional spheres. Chapter four studies bundles from the point of view of differential geometry, by introducing connections on a vector bundle, parallel translation and holonomy groups in the first two sections. In the next section one studies the curvature tensor of a connection on a vector bundle. Then connections on a manifold M are considered as connections on the tangent bundle of M. The last section discusses connections on principal bundles and examines the relations between a connection on the frame bundle and that on the associated vector bundle. Chapter five is dedicated to metric structures according to the title of the book. Euclidian bundles and Riemannian manifolds are defined. The basic tools, such as Levi-Civita connections, the curvature operator, isometric immersions, Riemannian submersions, geodesic and length-minimizing properties of geodesics, first and second variation of arc-length are introduced. The relation between curvature and topology is illustrated here by the theorems of Hadamard-Cartan and Bonnet-Mayers. The last chapter is entitled ``chacteristic classes'' and deals with Chern-Weil theory. The Pontrjagin, Euler and Chern classes of a vector bundle are introduced and some examples are examined of vector bundles over spheres of dimension less or equal 4. The generalized Gauss-Bonnet theorem is also presented. The book contains some nice examples, often developed in detail. For the serious reader there are 165 exercises. The topics are well-closed and the content is well-organized. The reviewer has a remark, however. Considering the title of the book, the reviewer would have expected from this book to contain more results in Riemannian geometry. In particular, the section on Riemannian submersions should have been larger, considering that the author is an expert on this topic. The bibliography contains 37 items, mainly books, as well as influential papers. This clearly written book is an excellent source for teaching a course in differential geometry and contains enough material for a two-semester course. It is a worthwhile addition to any mathematical library.