Rotation fields and the fundamental theorem of Riemannian geometry in \(\mathbb R^3\) (Q857072)

The following is shown: If a smooth enough field \(U\) of symmetric and positive-definite matrices of order three satisfies on a simply-connected open subset \(\Omega \subset \mathbb R^3\) the compatibility relation [(see\textit{C. Vallée}, Inter. J. Eng. Sci. 30, 1753--1757 (1992; Zbl 0825.73217)], then there exists, typically in spaces such as \(W^{2,\infty}_{\text{loc}} (\Omega;\mathbb R^3)\) or \(C^2(\Omega;\mathbb R^3)\), an immersion \(\Theta:\Omega\to R^2\) such that \(U^2=\nabla\Theta^T \nabla\Theta\) in \(\Omega\).