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Linked to English translation of Christoffel's article.
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Igor Khavkine
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Presumably it was Riemann himself who proved the sufficiency of $R=0$ for the flatness. Spivak's Chapter 4 in Volume II of "A comprehensive introduction to differential geometry" is a good source on Riemann's work. It gives a translation of Riemann's inaugural lecture and of a part of his prize essay. At the end of the prize essay Riemann says (I am citing from Spivak):

Given an acquaintance with the traditional methods, it is demonstrated without difficulty that these ... conditions when they are satisfied, suffice...

meaning the vanishing of the components of the curvature tensor. Later in Chapter 4, Spivak gives a proof of this claim by a method that could have been considered "traditional" by Riemann.

EDIT: It is possible that the first published proof is contained in

Christoffel, E. B., On transformations of homogeneous differential forms of degree two., Borchardt J. LXX, 46-70 (1869). ZBL02.0128.03. [English translation included as Section 8 of Fagginger Auer, B. O. Christoffel revisited. MSc thesis (2011, Utrecht)]

Christoffel deals with equivalence of two metrics, not just flatness.

Presumably it was Riemann himself who proved the sufficiency of $R=0$ for the flatness. Spivak's Chapter 4 in Volume II of "A comprehensive introduction to differential geometry" is a good source on Riemann's work. It gives a translation of Riemann's inaugural lecture and of a part of his prize essay. At the end of the prize essay Riemann says (I am citing from Spivak):

Given an acquaintance with the traditional methods, it is demonstrated without difficulty that these ... conditions when they are satisfied, suffice...

meaning the vanishing of the components of the curvature tensor. Later in Chapter 4, Spivak gives a proof of this claim by a method that could have been considered "traditional" by Riemann.

EDIT: It is possible that the first published proof is contained in

Christoffel, E. B., On transformations of homogeneous differential forms of degree two., Borchardt J. LXX, 46-70 (1869). ZBL02.0128.03.

Christoffel deals with equivalence of two metrics, not just flatness.

Presumably it was Riemann himself who proved the sufficiency of $R=0$ for the flatness. Spivak's Chapter 4 in Volume II of "A comprehensive introduction to differential geometry" is a good source on Riemann's work. It gives a translation of Riemann's inaugural lecture and of a part of his prize essay. At the end of the prize essay Riemann says (I am citing from Spivak):

Given an acquaintance with the traditional methods, it is demonstrated without difficulty that these ... conditions when they are satisfied, suffice...

meaning the vanishing of the components of the curvature tensor. Later in Chapter 4, Spivak gives a proof of this claim by a method that could have been considered "traditional" by Riemann.

EDIT: It is possible that the first published proof is contained in

Christoffel, E. B., On transformations of homogeneous differential forms of degree two., Borchardt J. LXX, 46-70 (1869). ZBL02.0128.03. [English translation included as Section 8 of Fagginger Auer, B. O. Christoffel revisited. MSc thesis (2011, Utrecht)]

Christoffel deals with equivalence of two metrics, not just flatness.

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Ivan Izmestiev
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Presumably it was Riemann himself who proved the sufficiency of $R=0$ for the flatness. Spivak's Chapter 4 in Volume II of "A comprehensive introduction to differential geometry" is a good source on Riemann's work. It gives a translation of Riemann's inaugural lecture and of a part of his prize essay. At the end of the prize essay Riemann says (I am citing from Spivak):

Given an acquaintance with the traditional methods, it is demonstrated without difficulty that these ... conditions when they are satisfied, suffice...

meaning the vanishing of the components of the curvature tensor. Later in Chapter 4, Spivak gives a proof of this claim by a method that could have been considered "traditional" by Riemann.

I don't know however who was historicallyEDIT: It is possible that the first to publish apublished proof is contained in

Christoffel, E. B., On transformations of homogeneous differential forms of degree two., Borchardt J. LXX, 46-70 (1869). ZBL02.0128.03.

Christoffel deals with equivalence of thistwo metrics, but I would look rather not for a paper but for a textbookjust flatness.

Presumably it was Riemann himself who proved the sufficiency of $R=0$ for the flatness. Spivak's Chapter 4 in Volume II of "A comprehensive introduction to differential geometry" is a good source on Riemann's work. It gives a translation of Riemann's inaugural lecture and of a part of his prize essay. At the end of the prize essay Riemann says (I am citing from Spivak):

Given an acquaintance with the traditional methods, it is demonstrated without difficulty that these ... conditions when they are satisfied, suffice...

meaning the vanishing of the components of the curvature tensor. Later in Chapter 4, Spivak gives a proof of this claim by a method that could have been considered "traditional" by Riemann.

I don't know however who was historically the first to publish a proof of this, but I would look rather not for a paper but for a textbook.

Presumably it was Riemann himself who proved the sufficiency of $R=0$ for the flatness. Spivak's Chapter 4 in Volume II of "A comprehensive introduction to differential geometry" is a good source on Riemann's work. It gives a translation of Riemann's inaugural lecture and of a part of his prize essay. At the end of the prize essay Riemann says (I am citing from Spivak):

Given an acquaintance with the traditional methods, it is demonstrated without difficulty that these ... conditions when they are satisfied, suffice...

meaning the vanishing of the components of the curvature tensor. Later in Chapter 4, Spivak gives a proof of this claim by a method that could have been considered "traditional" by Riemann.

EDIT: It is possible that the first published proof is contained in

Christoffel, E. B., On transformations of homogeneous differential forms of degree two., Borchardt J. LXX, 46-70 (1869). ZBL02.0128.03.

Christoffel deals with equivalence of two metrics, not just flatness.

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Ivan Izmestiev
  • 6.3k
  • 26
  • 50

Presumably it was Riemann himself who proved the sufficiency of $R=0$ for the flatness. Spivak's Chapter 4 in Volume II of "A comprehensive introduction to differential geometry" is a good source on Riemann's work. It gives a translation of Riemann's inaugural lecture and of a part of his prize essay. At the end of the prize essay Riemann says (I am citing from Spivak):

Given an acquaintance with the traditional methods, it is demonstrated without difficulty that these ... conditions when they are satisfied, suffice...

meaning the vanishing of the components of the curvature tensor. Later in Chapter 4, Spivak gives a proof of this claim by a method that could have been considered "traditional" by Riemann.

I don't know however who was historically the first to publish a proof of this, but I would look rather not for a paper but for a textbook.