Questions tagged [torsion]

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24 answers
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What is torsion in differential geometry intuitively?

Hi, given a connection on the tangent space of a manifold, one can define its torsion: $$T(X,Y):=\triangledown_X Y - \triangledown_Y X - [X,Y]$$ What is the geometric picture behind this definition&...
Jan Weidner's user avatar
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27 votes
4 answers
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Rolling without slipping interpretation of torsion

This is, in a sense, a follow up to this question. Hehl and Obukhov try to give an intuitive description of torsion. I am confused about their description. I am looking at the following paragraph on ...
David E Speyer's user avatar
21 votes
2 answers
4k views

Torsion and parallel transport

There's a close relationship between curvature and the holonomy group; the holonomy theorem of Ambrose and Singer, for example. It seems to me that there should be an analogous result for torsion. I ...
Oliver Jones's user avatar
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