A new proof of a classical result on the topology of orientable connected and compact surfaces by means of the Bochner technique

zbMATH Open1445.53024arXiv1911.08821MaRDI QIDQ5116787FDOQ5116787

Alfonso Romero, Jose Maria Almira

Publication date: 18 August 2020

Abstract: As an application of the Bochner formula, we prove that if a $2$-dimensional Riemannian manifold admits a non-trivial smooth tangent vector field $X$ then its Gauss curvature is the divergence of a tangent vector field, constructed from $X$, defined on the open subset out the zeroes of $X$. Thanks to the Whitney embedding theorem and a standard approximation procedure, as a consequence, we give a new proof of the following well-known fact: if on an orientable, connected and compact $2$-dimensional smooth manifold there exists a continuous tangent vector field with no zeroes, then the manifold is diffeomorphic (or equivalently homeomorphic) to a torus.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.08821

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zbMATH Keywords

Gauss curvatureGauss-Bonnet theoremBochner techniqueorientable compact connected surfaces

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Global Riemannian geometry, including pinching (53C20) Global geometric and topological methods (à la Gromov); differential geometric analysis on metric spaces (53C23) Vector fields, frame fields in differential topology (57R25)

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