Questions tagged [riemannian-geometry]
Riemannian Geometry is a subfield of Differential Geometry, which specifically studies "Riemannian Manifolds", manifolds with "Riemannian Metrics", which means that they are equipped with continuous inner products.
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John Nash's Mathematical Legacy
It would seem that John Nash and his wife Alicia died tragically in a car accident on May 23, 2015 (reference). My condolences to his family and friends.
Maybe this is an appropriate time to ask a ...
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When can a connection Induce a Riemannian metric for which it is the Levi-Civita connection?
As we all know, for a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, there exists a unique torsion-free connection $\nabla_g$, the Levi-Civita connection, that is compatible with the metric.
I was wondering if one can ...
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Converse to Euclid's fifth postulate
There is a fascinating open problem in Riemannian Geometry which I would like to advertise here because I do not think that it is as well-known as it deserves to be. Euclid's famous fifth postulate, ...
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Riemannian surfaces with an explicit distance function?
I'm looking for explicit examples of Riemannian surfaces (two-dimensional Riemannian manifolds $(M,g)$) for which the distance function d(x,y) can be given explicitly in terms of local coordinates of ...
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Advanced Differential Geometry Textbook
I tried this post on StackExchange with no luck. Hopefully the experts at MathOverflow can help.
In algebraic topology there are two canonical "advanced" textbooks that go quite far beyond the usual ...
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"Gross-Zagier" formulae outside of number theory
The Gross-Zagier formula and various variations of it form the starting point in most of the existing results towards the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. It relates the value at $1$ of the ...
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What are "good" examples of spin manifolds?
I'm trying to get a grasp on what it means for a manifold to be spin. My question is, roughly:
What are some "good" (in the sense of illustrating the concept) examples of manifolds which are spin (...
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Does the curvature determine the metric?
I ask myself, whether the curvature determines the metric.
Concretely: Given a compact manifold $M$, are there two metrics $g_1$ and $g_2$, which are not everywhere flat, such that they are
not ...
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Finding a 1-form adapted to a smooth flow
Let $M$ be a smooth compact manifold, and let $X$ be a smooth vector field of $M$ that is nowhere vanishing, thus one can think of the pair $(M,X)$ as a smooth flow with no fixed points. Let us say ...
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Open questions in Riemannian geometry
What are some major open problems in Riemannian Geometry? I tried googling it, but couldn't find any resources.
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A geometric interpretation of the Levi-Civita connection?
Let $M$ be a Riemannian manifold. There exists a unique torsion-free connection in the (co)tangent bundle of $M$ such that the metric of $M$ is covariantly constant. This connection is called the Levi-...
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What is the Levi-Civita connection trying to describe?
I have seen similar questions, but none of the answers relate to my difficulty, which I will now proceed to convey.
Let $(M,g)$ be a Riemannian manifolds. The Levi-Civita connection is the unique ...
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Riemann's formula for the metric in a normal neighborhood
I would love to understand the famous formula $g_{ij}(x) = \delta_{ij} + \frac{1}{3}R_{kijl}x^kx^l +O(\|x\|^3)$, which is valid in Riemannian normal coordinates and possibly more general situations.
I'...
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Many flat totally geodesic surfaces ⇒ flat?
Let $M$ be a 4-dimensional Riemannian manifold.
Assume there is a huge number (say 100) of flat totally geodesic 2-dimensional surfaces
passing through a point $p\in M$ and assume that their tangent ...
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What is the shape of the perfect coffee cup for heat retention assuming coffee is being drunk at a constant rate?
Note: I asked this on Mathematics SE and even though @TheSimpliFire offered a bounty on it, no-one had a good answer
Find the optimal shape of a coffee cup for heat retention. Assuming
A constant ...
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Introductory text on Riemannian geometry
I have studied differential geometry, and am looking for basic introductory texts on Riemannian geometry. My target is eventually Kähler geometry, but certain topics like geodesics, curvature, ...
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Minimal volume of 4-manifolds
This question came up in a talk of Dieter Kotschick yesterday. The minimal volume of a manifold is the infimum of volumes of Riemannian metrics on the manifold with sectional curvatures bounded in ...
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Is the Laplacian on a manifold the limit of graph Laplacians?
Here's the sort of thing I have in mind. Let $M$ be a Riemannian manifold, compact if it helps, and let $\Delta_M$ be the Laplace-Beltrami operator. Choose a sequence of triangulations of $M$ so ...
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Determining a surface in $\mathbb{R}^3$ by its Gaussian curvature
A curve in the plane is determined, up to orientation-preserving
Euclidean
motions, by its curvature function, $\kappa(s)$.
Here is one of my favorite examples, from
Alfred Gray's book,
Modern ...
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When is a closed differential form harmonic relative to some metric?
Let $\omega$ be a closed non-exact differential $k$-form ($k \geq 1$) on a closed orientable manifold $M$.
Question: Is there always a Riemannian metric $g$ on $M$ such that $\omega$ is $g$-harmonic,...
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Is there a mathematical book on general relativity that uses exclusively a coordinate free language even in practical computations?
I would also appreciate if it was as far from the physicists formalism as possible, no abstract indices ,etc. Also I don't consider using a basis or tetrads as coordinate free.
The idea is to use ...
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$G_2$ and Geometry
In a recent question Deane Yang mentioned the beautiful Riemannian geometry that comes up when looking at $G_2$. I am wondering if people could expand on the geometry related to the exceptional Lie ...
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Some questions about scalar curvature
Recall that the scalar curvature of a Riemannian manifold is given by the trace of the Ricci curvature tensor. I will now summarize everything that I know about scalar curvature in three sentences:
...
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Intuition behind moduli space of curves
For a genus g compact smooth surface $M$, an algebraic structure is the same as a complex structure is the same as a conformal structure. So the moduli space of smooth curves should be the same as the ...
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geometric interpretation of Lie bracket
On page 159 of "A Comprehensive Introduction To Differential Geometry Vol.1" by Spivak has written:
We thus see that the bracket $[X,Y]$ measures, in some sense, the extent to
which the integral ...
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Metrics on the 3-sphere with knotted geodesics
According to answers to this question every metrics on $S^3$ admits a simple closed geodesic. Given a knot (or link) $K$, it's also quite simple to build a metric on $S^3$ such that $K$ is a geodesic (...
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How should you explain parallel transport to undergraduates?
The title is a bit deceiving, because what I really mean is the parallel transport that corresponds to the Levi–Civita connection.
This is in the vein of many other questions on mathoverflow:
What is ...
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Largest hyperbolic disk embeddable in Euclidean 3-space?
Hilbert proved that there's no complete regular ($C^k$ for sufficiently large $k$) isometric embedding of the hyperbolic plane into $\mathbb{R}^3$. On the other hand, the pseudosphere is locally ...
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If a triangle can be displaced without distortion, must the surface have constant curvature?
Suppose $S$ is a Riemannian 2-manifold (e.g. a surface in $\mathbb{R}^3$).
Let $T$ be a geodesic triangle on $S$: a triangle whose edges are geodesics.
If $T$ can be moved around arbitrarily on $S$ ...
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Complex manifolds in which the exponential map is holomorphic
Let $X$ be a complex manifold and $g$ a hermitian metric on $X$. Consider the Riemannian exponential $\exp_p: T_p X \to X$.
If $\exp_p$ is holomorphic for every $p \in X$, then $(\exp_p)^{-1}$, ...
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Algebraic (semi-) Riemannian geometry ?
I hope these are not to vague questions for MO.
Is there an analog of the concept of a Riemannian metric, in algebraic geometry?
Of course, transporting things literally from the differential ...
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Is there an explanation of analogies between the cross-ratio and the Riemann curvature tensor?
Define the cross-ratio of four real or complex numbers as follows:
$$[a,b,c,d] = \frac{(a-c)(b-d)}{(a-d)(b-c)}.$$
Then its logarithm has the same symmetries as the curvature tensor:
$$\log[a,b,c,d] = -...
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Roadmap to learning about Ricci Flow?
Hello,
I'm curious to what books etc. one could use to understand the basics of Ricci flow, what areas of math are needed and so? What areas should one specialize in? See it as a roadmap to ...
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Why is there no symplectic version of spectral geometry?
First, recall that on a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ the Laplace-Beltrami operator $\Delta_g:C^\infty(M)\to C^\infty(M)$ is defined as
$$
\Delta_g=\mathrm{div}_g\circ\mathrm{grad}_g,
$$
where the ...
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Is there a Chern-Gauss-Bonnet theorem for orbifolds?
There's a Gauss-Bonnet theorem for compact 2-orbifolds(due to Satake, I think), which gives a relation between the curvature of a Riemannian orbifold and the orbifold topology(i.e. taking into account ...
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Does Ricci flow depend continuously on the initial metric?
Consider a version of Ricci flow for which short time existence and uniqueness are known,
e.g. the Ricci flow on a closed manifold. Does the solution $g_t$ for small $t$ depend continuously on the ...
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The Origin of the Musical Isomorphisms
In Riemannian geometry, the "lowering indices" operator is denoted by $\flat:TM \to T^*M$ and the "raising indices" operator by $\sharp:T^*M \to TM$. These isomorphisms are ...
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Does isometric immersion map boundary to boundary?
Let $M$ be a compact, connected, oriented, smooth Riemannian manifold with non-empty boundary. Let $f:M \to M$ be a smooth orientation preserving isometric immersion.
Is it true that $f(\partial M) \...
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Finding the closest matrix to $\text{SO}_n$ with a given determinant
$\newcommand{\GLp}{\operatorname{GL}_n^+}$
$\newcommand{\SLs}{\operatorname{SL}^s}$
$\newcommand{\dist}{\operatorname{dist}}$
$\newcommand{\Sig}{\Sigma}$
$\newcommand{\id}{\text{Id}}$
$\newcommand{\...
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Ricci flat metric on $n$-sphere?
Can you put a Ricci flat metric on the $n$-sphere, $n>4$?
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Intuition for mean curvature
I would like to get some intuitive feeling for the mean curvature. The mean curvature of a hypersurface in a Riemannian manifold by definition is the trace of the second fundamental form.
Is there ...
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Questions on J. F. Nash's answer about his errors in the proof of embedding theorem
In the interview of John Nash taken by Christian Skau and Martin Gaussen, in EMS Newsletter, September, 2015 when asked
Is it true, as rumours have it, that
you started to work on the embedding ...
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Isometric embedding of SO(3) into an euclidean space
Consider $SO(3)$ with its bi-invariant metric and $R^n$ the euclidean space of dimension $n$. What is the minimal value of $n$ such that there exists an isometric embedding $f: SO(3) \to R^n$?
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Does a Riemannian manifold with bounded geometry admit an isometric proper embedding into Euclidean space with uniformly thick tubular neighborhood?
Suppose $(M,g)$ is an open Riemannian manifold with bounded geometry, i.e., the injectivity radius is $\ge \epsilon>0$ and each iterated covariant derivative of curvature is bounded with respect to ...
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Ellipses on spheres (and other surfaces)
Define an ellipse $E$ on a sphere as the locus of points whose sum of
shortest geodesic distances to two foci $p_1$ and $p_2$ is a constant $d$.
There are conditions on $\{ p_1, p_2, d \}$ for this ...
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Do free higher homotopy classes of compact Riemannian manifolds have preferred representatives?
A well known theorem of Cartan states that every free homotopy class of closed paths in a compact Riemannian manifold is represented by a closed geodesic (theorem 2.2 of Do Carmo, chapter 12, for ...
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Immersions of the hyperbolic plane
Is it possible to isometrically immerse the hyperbolic plane into a compact Riemannian manifold as a totally geodesic submanifold? Any nice examples?
Edit: Although I did not originally say so, I was ...
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Obtain Lorentzian manifolds from Riemannian ones by Wick rotation
In some cases, Wick rotation of a metric, formally consisting in substituting a coordinate with i times the coordinate itself, allows one to construct a Riemannian manifold starting from a Lorentzian ...
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Is there a smooth manifold which admits only rigid metrics?
Does there exist a (finite dimensional) smooth manifold $M$, such that every Riemannian metric on $M$ has no isometries except the identity?
Of course, such a manifold must not admit a diffeomorphism ...
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Curvature and Parallel Transport
Here is an updated formulation of the question, which is more precise and I think completely correct:
Suppose $M$ is a Riemannian manifold. Pick a point $p$ in $M$ and let $U$ be a neighborhood of ...