Table of Contents
Problem Set 0 (optional, do not turn in)
These exercises are meant to review your knowledge of smooth manifolds. You should be able to do them, but you don't need to turn them in.
- Suppose that \(M\) is a smooth manifold and let \(p\in M\).
- Show that the definitions of \(T_p M\) in terms of curves and in terms of derivations are equivalent.
- Give two proofs of the chain rule for maps between smooth manifolds, one using each definition.
If \(F: \R^m \to \R^n\) is a smooth function, we say that \(x\in \R^n\) is a regular value of \(F\) if \(\rank DF_y = n\) for every \(y\in F^{-1}(x)\). In class, we showed that this implies that \(F^{-1}(x)\) is a smooth submanifold of \(\R^m\).
- Let \(M\subset \R^n\) be a \(d\)–submanifold and let \(p\in M\).
- Show that there is a neighborhood \(U\) containing \(p\) and a diffeomorphism \(F\) from \(U\) to an open subset of \(\R^n\) such that \(F\) sends \(U\) to the unit ball in \(\R^n\) and sends \(M\cap U\) to the intersection of the ball with a \(d\)–plane.
- Conclude that there is a smooth function \(G: \R^n \to \R^{n-d}\) such that \(0\) is a regular value of \(G\) and \(G^{-1}(0) \cap U = M \cap U\). That is, \(M\) can locally be written as the preimage of a regular value of a smooth function.
- Construct an example of a submanifold \(M\subset \R^n\) that cannot be written as the preimage of a regular value of a smooth function. (Hint: Suppose that \(n=3\) and \(F: \R^3\to \R\) is a smooth map such that \(0\) is a regular value of \(F\). Show that \(F^{-1}(0)\) has two "sides." Construct a smooth submanifold \(M\subset\R^3\) that does not have two sides.)
- Construct two different charts \(\psi_1\) and \(\psi_2\) for the sphere using map projections of your choice. (The simplest are probably equirectangular and orthographic.) Suppose \(p\) lies in both charts. Then each projection gives a basis for \(T_p S^2\). Use the transition map \(\psi_2\circ \psi_1^{-1}\) to write down the change of basis matrix for the two bases.
Problem Set 1 (due February 5)
Due at 11pm on Thursday, February 5 on Gradescope.
- Reading: Chapter 2 of Lee.
- If Lee is too verbose for your taste, more concise introductions can be found in Milnor, Morse Theory and Petersen, Riemannian Geometry.
- Let \(M\) be a smooth manifold and let \(U\subset M\) be an open subset. Show that if \(f\in C^\infty(U)\) and \(p\in U\), then there are an open subset \(\hat{U}\) and a \(\hat{f}\in C^\infty(M)\) such that \(p\in \hat{U} \subset U\) and \(W|_{\hat{U}}= V|_{\hat{U}}\). Why can't we take \(\hat{U}=U\) here?
A smooth partition of unity for \(M\) is a set of smooth, nonnegative functions \(\{\rho_{\alpha}\}_{\alpha\in A}\) such that for every \(x\in M\):
- there is a neighborhood of \(x\) where all but finitely many of the \(\rho_\alpha\)'s are zero
- \(\sum_{\alpha} \rho_\alpha(x)=1\).
It's a standard and useful result in differential topology that for any \(M\) and any open cover \(M=\bigcup_{\alpha\in A} U_\alpha\), there is a partition of unity \(\{\rho_\alpha\}_{\alpha\in A}\) such that \[\supp \rho_\alpha \subset U_\alpha\] for all \(\alpha\), where \(\supp(\rho_\alpha)\) is the closure of \(f^{-1}((0,\infty))\).
- Let \(M\) be a smooth manifold. Use a smooth partition of unity to construct a Riemannian metric on \(M\). (It may help to show that if \(g_1,\dots,g_k\) are positive-definite inner products and \(a_1,\dots, a_k > 0\), then \(\sum_i a_i g_i\) is also a positive-definite inner product.)
- Suppose that \(M\) is a smooth manifold. Let \(G\) be a compact group that acts on \(M\) by diffeomorphisms. Let \(\rho: G\to \Diff(M)\) be the action and suppose that \(\rho\) is continuous. Show that there is a Riemannian metric \(h\) such that \(G\) acts on \((M,h)\) by isometries. (Hint: Use the fact that \(G\) has a Haar measure, i.e., a probability measure which is left- and right-invariant.)
- Let \(n>0\) and let \(M,N\) be Riemannian manifolds of dimension \(n\). Suppose that \(\phi \from M\to N\) is a conformal map, i.e., that \(\phi_* \from T_xM\to T_{\phi(x)}N\) is injective for all \(x\in M\) and for all \(x\in M\) and all \(v,w\in T_xM\) with \(v,w\ne 0\), \[\angle(\phi_*(v), \phi_*(w)) = \angle(v,w).\] Show that there is a conformal factor \(a\in C^{\infty}(M)\) such that for all \(x\in M\) and all \(v\in T_xM\), \[\|\phi_*(v)\| = a(x) \|v\|.\]
- Let \(H = \{x + y i \in \mathbb{C} \mid y > 0\}\) be the upper half-plane and equip \(H\) with the metric \[g = \frac{1}{y}(dx^2+dy^2).\] Show that for any \(a,b,c,d\in \R\) such that \(ad-bc = 1\), the map \(f\from H\to H\), \[f(z) = \frac{az + b}{cz + d}\] is an isometry of \(H\).