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This question was also asked here on math-stackexchange.

Let $E\to M$ and $F\to M$ be vector bundles. The structure of their tangents $TE$ and $TF$ is well known. In particular, connectors map $K_E: TE \to E\times_M E$ and $K_F: TF \to F\times_M F$ induce isomorphisms $TE \simeq E \times_M (E\oplus TM)$ and $TF \simeq F \times_M (F\oplus TM)$ (I am using here a fibered product notation, rather than the equivalent pullbacks).

Consider now the vector bundle $E\otimes F\to M$. Its tangent can be characterized in the same way as the tangent bundle of every vector bundle. My question is whether there exists a canonical isomorphism of $T(E\otimes F)$ involving the tangent bundles $TE$ and $TF$. I would suspect a positive answer, which in particular looks like a "Leibniz rule". Also, what is the connector $K_{E\otimes F}$ induced by $K_E$ and $K_F$? After all, covariant derivative of tensor products satisfy a Leibniz rule.

Here is yet an alternative formulation. How does the choice of horizontal bundles for $TE$ and $TF$ determine a horizontal bundle for $T(E\otimes F)$?

The same question can be asked regarding the vector bundle $\operatorname{Hom}(E,F)$.

In fact, the question seems reducible to the case of $M$ being a point, so that $E$ and $F$ are just vector spaces. Then, $TE \simeq E\times E$ and $TF \simeq F\times F$. If $E$ has dimension $m$ and $F$ has dimension $k$, then the tensor product $TE\otimes TF$ has dimension $4mk$, which is twice the dimension of $T(E\otimes F)$. How to proceed from here?

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3 Answers 3

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Over a point: $$ T(E\otimes F) = (E\otimes F)\oplus (E\otimes F) = E\otimes (F\oplus F) $$ which is naturally isomorphic to $(E\oplus E)\otimes F$ using the canonical flip $E\otimes F = F\otimes E$. Likewise $$ T\operatorname{Hom}(E,F) = \operatorname{Hom}(E,F)\oplus \operatorname{Hom}(E,F)=\operatorname{Hom}(E,TF) $$ The Leibniz rule mixes the two representations: Consider first curve $\sum_i e_i(t)\otimes f_j(t)$; its velocity at $t=0$ is then $$\Big(\sum_i e_i(0)\otimes f_j(0), \sum_i e_i'(0)\otimes f_j(0) + \sum_i e_i(0)\otimes f_j'(0)\big).$$ Counting entries you have $2mk$.

It is more clear to consider a curve in terms of bases $$ \sum_{i,j} c_{ij}(t)\; e_i\otimes f_j = \sum_j\Big(\sum_{i} c_{ij}(t)\; e_i\Big)\otimes f_j = \sum_{i} e_i\otimes \Big(\sum_jc_{ij}(t)\;f_j \Big), $$
then its derivate via (footpoint, speed vector) is $\Big(\sum_{i,j} c_{ij}(0)\; e_i\otimes f_j, \sum_{i,j} c_{ij}'(0)\; e_i\otimes f_j\Big)$. You see that you can move the function part from left to right which explains the isomorphism above.

For vector bundles it is similar: the $TM$-part should be there only once.

Added:

Now let $p_E:E\to M$ and $p_F:F\to M$ be vector bundles. Then $$E\otimes F = \operatorname{Hom}(E^*, F) = \operatorname{Hom}(F^*,E)$$ where the last natural isomorphism is via transpose using $E^{**}=E$. Then $$ T\operatorname{Hom}(E^*,F) = \operatorname{Hom}(E^*,TF) \xrightarrow{\operatorname{Hom}(E^*,\pi_F)} \operatorname{Hom}(E^*,F), $$ where the middle ${\operatorname{Hom}}$ abuses notation and uses unsaid conventions. Note the second vector bundle structure $$ \operatorname{Hom}(E^*,TF)\xrightarrow{\operatorname{Hom}(E^*,T(p_F))} \operatorname{Hom}(E^*,TM), $$ see 8.12 ff of this book or 6.11 in that book.

Your next question is essentially, how to write the induced connector $K_{E\otimes F}: T(E\otimes F) \to (E\otimes F)\times_M (E\otimes F)$ whose kernel would identify the pullback of $TM$ to $E\otimes F$ with the horizontal bundle. See 19.12 ff of this book for background. Here we need a name for the canonical isomorphism $\rho:E\otimes TF = F\otimes TE$ (abuse of notation here). Then $K_{E\otimes F} = Id_E \otimes K_F + \rho \circ Id_F\otimes K_E \circ \rho$.

Note that the horizontal bundle is not natural.

A remark to the formulation at end of your question: $TE$ is NOT a vector bundle over $M$, it has two vector bundle structures $$ TM \xleftarrow{Tp} TE \xrightarrow{\pi_E} E, $$ and the chart changes over $M$ are quadratic (like for the Christoffel symbols). So $TE\otimes TF$ does make sense only with a lot of abuse of notation and unsaid conventions.

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks Peter. Two issues: (1) under this angle, it is no longer transparent that it is a vector bundle over $E\otimes F$. (2) How do horizontal bundles of $TE$ and $TF$ define a horizontal bundle of $T(E\otimes F)$? $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 12, 2022 at 4:27
  • $\begingroup$ Under the identification $T(E \otimes F) \cong E \otimes TF$ (in the sense meant above), I believe the connector is actually just $K_{E \otimes F} = \operatorname{id}_E \otimes K_F : E \otimes TF \to E \otimes F$. The reason is that the connection on $E$ is used in the identification $E \otimes TF \cong T(E \otimes F)$ in the first place. I have sorted this out in my answer over here on math.se (at the bottom). $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 4 at 7:59
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The other answer is very helpful, but I believe it has some subtle problems. Let me expand on a few of the details because I think they can be confusing.

The tangent bundle $T E$ of a vector bundle $p : E \to B$ is canonically itself a vector bundle in two different ways: over $E$ via the usual $\pi_E : T E \to E$, and via $D p : TE \to TB$.

The vertical subbundle $V E \subset T E$ is the kernel of $D p$, and so is itself a vector bundle over $E$ (but not $T B$). Also, let's call the kernel of $\pi_E : T E \to E$ (where we give $T E$ the $TB$-bundle structure) the zero subbundle $Z E$ of $T E$. Then $Z E$ is a vector bundle over $TB$ (but not $E$). Of course, $ZE$ is the same as the restriction of $TE$ with the usual $E$-bundle structure to the image of the zero section $\sigma(B) \subset E$.

In this language, a linear connection on $E$ is the same as a choice of $E$-bundle complement $HE$ of the subbundle $VE$ in $TE$ such that $HE$ is at the same time a $TB$-bundle complement of $ZE$. This is a bit confusing: $HE$ is simultaneously a vector subbundle of $TE$ with respect to both possible bundle structures.

The horizontal subbundle $H(E \otimes F) \subset T(E \otimes F)$

Thus in the presence of a connection, we have direct sum decompositions $TE \cong VE \oplus_E HE$ and $TE \cong ZE \oplus_{TB} HE$. Now consider the map of both $(E\otimes F)$-bundles and $TB$-bundles $$ \tau : TE \otimes_{TB} TF \to T(E \otimes_B F). $$ The bundle $TE \otimes_{TB} TF$ has twice the fiber dimension of $T(E \otimes_B F)$, so $\tau$ must have a kernel. This is annoying to pin down, since e.g. the image of the tensor product of vertical vectors $$ \tau : [e + t e'] \otimes [f + t f'] \mapsto [e \otimes f + t(e \otimes f' + e' \otimes f)] $$ has a funky multiplication law. It turns out that the tensor product plays much more nicely with the decomposition $TE \cong ZE \oplus_{TB} HE$ : if $\alpha \in ZE$ and $\beta \in ZF$ then $\tau(\alpha \otimes \beta) = 0$ (intuitively because $\alpha \otimes \beta$ must be zero "to second order"). Also, we pretty easily see that $\tau(HE \otimes ZF) = \tau(ZE \otimes HF) = Z(E \otimes F)$ and in either case the corresponding restriction of $\tau$ is an isomorphism onto its image.

By counting dimensions, this completely pins down the kernel of $\tau$: it is the direct sum $K_0 \oplus K_1$ with $K_0 = ZE \otimes ZF$ and $K_1$ spanned by all $\gamma = \alpha_H \otimes \beta_Z + \alpha_Z \otimes \beta_H$ with $\alpha_H \in HE$, $\alpha_Z \in ZE$, $\beta_H \in HF$, $\beta_Z \in ZF$, and $\tau(\gamma) = 0$.

In particular, for dimension reasons this means that $\tau$ takes $HE \otimes HF$ isomorphically onto its image. We then define the horizontal subbundle $H(E \otimes F) := \tau(HE \otimes HF)$ of $E \otimes F$ this way. It's easy to see that $H(E \otimes F)$ is a complement to $Z(E \otimes F)$ in the right sense. Thus we have obtained the canonical connection on the tensor product bundle $E \otimes F$.

The horizontal projection $h_{E \otimes F} : T (E \otimes F) \to T (E \otimes F)$

Let $h_E : T E \to T E$ and $h_F : T F \to T F$ be the horizontal projections for conenctions on $E$ and $F$ respectively. Because $T (E \otimes F)$ is awkward to work with directly, it is easiest define the horizontal projection $h_{E \otimes F} : T (E \otimes F) \to T (E \otimes F)$ by first building the map $$ TE \otimes_{TB} TF \xrightarrow{h_E \otimes h_F} TE \otimes_{TB} TF \xrightarrow{\ \ \ \ \tau\ \ \ \ } T(E \otimes F). $$ This map descends to a map $h_{E \otimes F} : T(E \otimes F) \to T(E \otimes F)$ exactly when $\tau \eta = 0$ implies $\tau (h_E \otimes h_F) \eta = 0$ for any $\eta \in TE \otimes_{TB} TF$. But this is true by our explicit calculations above: the kernel of $\tau$ is $K_0 \oplus K_1$, clearly $(h_E \otimes h_F)K_0 = 0$, and for any $\gamma = \alpha_H \otimes \beta_Z + \alpha_Z \otimes \beta_H \in K_1$ we have $$ (h_E \otimes h_F)\gamma = \alpha_H \otimes 0 + 0 \otimes \beta_H = 0. $$

Thus our map descends and we obtain the horizontal projection map $h_{E \otimes F}$ satisfying for any $\alpha$ and $\beta$ $$ h_{E \otimes F}(\tau(\alpha \otimes \beta)) = \tau(h_E \alpha \otimes h_F \beta). $$

The connector $K_{E \otimes F} : T (E \otimes F) \to E \otimes F$

Given the connectors $K_E : T E \to E$ and $K_F : T F \to F$, what is the connector $K_{E \otimes F}$? Tracing through the definition of the connector in terms of $h$ we obtain $$ K_{E \otimes F} \circ \tau = K_E \otimes \pi_F + \pi_E \otimes K_F, $$ which is subtly different to Peter's formula (as I explain in comments).

If you want to compute this formula yourself note the following (and replace $E$ with $E \otimes F$ below): usually the connector $K_E$ of a connection is defined as the composite $$ T E \xrightarrow{\ \ \operatorname{vpr}\ \ } V E \xrightarrow{\operatorname{vlift}^{-1}} E \times_B E \xrightarrow{\ \ \operatorname{pr}_2\ \ } E $$ where $\operatorname{vpr} : T E \to V E$ is the vertical projection and $\operatorname{vlift} : E \times_B E \to V E$ is the vertical lift isomorphism. Here $\operatorname{vpr} = 1 - h_E$ with the subtraction taken with respect to the $E$-bundle structure. It is much more convenient in our language to define the connector as the composite $$ T E \xrightarrow{\ \ \operatorname{zpr}\ \ } Z E \xrightarrow{\operatorname{zlift}^{-1}} E \times_B E \xrightarrow{\ \ \operatorname{pr}_2\ \ } E $$ where $\operatorname{zpr} : T E \to Z E$ is the projection onto $ZE$ and $\operatorname{zlift} : TB \times_B E \to ZE$ is the "zero lift" isomorphism. Here $\operatorname{zpr} = 1 - h_E$ with the subtraction taken with respect to the $TB$-bundle structure. As an exercise you can prove that these two definitions of $K_E$ are equivalent.

If you are not familiar with the map I have called "$\operatorname{zlift}$", its inverse $ZE \to TB \times_B E$ is defined by (if $p : E \to B$ is a vector bundle and $\xi \in ZE$ is represented by the derivative of the curve $\gamma(t) : \mathbb{R} \to E$ at $t = 0$) $$ \xi \mapsto \left(Dp(X),\ \lim_{t \to 0} \frac{\gamma(t)}{t}\right). $$ Note that the limit always exists exactly because $\xi \in ZE$ and so $\gamma(0) = \pi_E(\xi) = 0$.

General situation

In my math.se answer here I explain that in general there is a canonical isomorphism $$ \mu := \tau \circ (\operatorname{hlift} \otimes \operatorname{id}_{TF}) : (TB \times E) \otimes_{TB} TF \to T(E \otimes F) $$ given just a connection on $E$ only. Here $\operatorname{hlift} : TB \times_B E \to HE$ is the horizontal lift isomorphism for the connection, and of course my notation $(TB \times E) \otimes_{TB} TF$ means the same as Peter's $E \otimes TF$. Under the identification $\mu$ I compute that if one also chooses a connection on $F$ then $K_{E \otimes F} : (TB \times E) \otimes TF \to E \otimes F$ is just $\operatorname{pr}_2 \otimes K_F$, with the connection on $E$ hidden inside the identification $\mu$ itself.

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For a vector bundle $E$ over $M$, the tangent bundle $TE$ is generally not a vector bundle over $M$. It is a canonical example of a double vector bundle, with vector bundle structures over $E$ and over $TM$. Thus $T(E\otimes F)$ is not a vector bundle over $M$ but a double vector bundle over $E\otimes F$ and over $TM$.

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