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Matthias Ludewig
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Invariance group of Morse charts

Suppose I have a smooth function $\varphi$ that vanishes at $p$ and has a positive definite Hessian at that point (suppose that we are on a smooth manifold of dimension $M$). Then the Morse lemma tells us that we can find a chart $x$ (let us call it Morse chart) such that $$ \varphi = (x^1)^2 + \dots + (x^n)^2 = \langle x, x \rangle.$$ What is the transformation group of Morse charts?

To be more precise, I am looking for a group that acts freely and transitively on the group of Morse charts.

Obviously, the group $O(n)$ acting on the set of Morse charts via $(Q, x) \mapsto Q\cdot x$ is a subgroup of this group. But are there more such transformations?

Matthias Ludewig
  • 9.9k
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  • 71