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Graduate Texts in Mathematics
John M. Lee
Introduction to
Riemannian
Manifolds
Second Edition
Graduate Texts in Mathematics 176
Graduate Texts in Mathematics
Series Editors:
Sheldon Axler
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA
Kenneth Ribet
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Advisory Board:
Graduate Texts in Mathematics bridge the gap between passive study and
creative understanding, offering graduate-level introductions to advanced topics in
mathematics. The volumes are carefully written as teaching aids and highlight
characteristic features of the theory. Although these books are frequently used as
textbooks in graduate courses, they are also suitable for individual study.
Introduction to
Riemannian Manifolds
Second Edition
123
John M. Lee
Department of Mathematics
University of Washington
Seattle, WA, USA
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
v
vi Preface
Many other results and techniques might reasonably claim a place in an introduc-
tory Riemannian geometry book, but they would not fit in this book without dras-
tically broadening its scope. In particular, I do not treat the Morse index theorem,
Toponogov’s theorem, or their important applications such as the sphere theorem;
Hodge theory, gauge theory, minimal surface theory, or other applications of elliptic
partial differential equations to Riemannian geometry; or evolution equations such as
the Ricci flow or the mean curvature flow. These important topics are for other, more
advanced, books.
When I wrote the first edition of this book twenty years ago, a number of superb
reference books on Riemannian geometry were already available; in the intervening
years, many more have appeared. I invite the interested reader, after reading this
book, to consult some of those for a deeper treatment of some of the topics introduced
here, or to explore the more esoteric aspects of the subject. Some of my favorites are
Peter Petersen’s admirably comprehensive introductory text [Pet16]; the elegant
introduction to comparison theory by Jeff Cheeger and David Ebin [CE08] (which
was out of print for a number of years, but happily has been reprinted by the American
Mathematical Society); Manfredo do Carmo’s much more leisurely treatment of the
same material and more [dC92]; Barrett O’Neill’s beautifully integrated introduction
to pseudo-Riemannian and Riemannian geometry [O’N83]; Michael Spivak’s classic
multivolume tome [Spi79], which can be used as a textbook if plenty of time is
available, or can provide enjoyable bedtime reading; the breathtaking survey by
Marcel Berger [Ber03], which richly earns the word “panoramic” in its title; and
the “Encyclopaedia Britannica” of differential geometry books, Foundations of
Differential Geometry by Shoshichi Kobayashi and Katsumi Nomizu [KN96]. At the
other end of the spectrum, Frank Morgan’s delightful little book [Mor98] touches on
most of the important ideas in an intuitive and informal way with lots of pictures—I
enthusiastically recommend it as a prelude to this book. And there are many more to
recommend: for example, the books by Chavel [Cha06], Gallot/Hulin/Lafontaine
[GHL04], Jost [Jos17], Klingenberg [Kli95], and Jeffrey Lee [LeeJeff09] are all
excellent in different ways.
It is not my purpose to replace any of these. Instead, I hope this book fills a niche
in the literature by presenting a selective introduction to the main ideas of the
subject in an easily accessible way. The selection is small enough to fit (with some
judicious cutting) into a single quarter or semester course, but broad enough, I hope,
to provide any novice with a firm foundation from which to pursue research or
develop applications in Riemannian geometry and other fields that use its tools.
This book is written under the assumption that the student already knows the
fundamentals of the theory of topological and smooth manifolds, as treated, for
example, in my two other graduate texts [LeeTM, LeeSM]. In particular, the
student should be conversant with general topology, the fundamental group, covering
spaces, the classification of compact surfaces, topological and smooth manifolds,
immersions and submersions, submanifolds, vector fields and flows, Lie brackets and
Lie derivatives, tensors, differential forms, Stokes’s theorem, and the basic theory of
Lie groups. On the other hand, I do not assume any previous acquaintance with
Riemannian metrics, or even with the classical theory of curves and surfaces in R3 .
(In this subject, anything proved before 1950 can be considered “classical”!)
Preface vii
Although at one time it might have been reasonable to expect most mathematics
students to have studied surface theory as undergraduates, many current North
American undergraduate math majors never see any differential geometry. Thus the
fundamentals of the geometry of surfaces, including a proof of the Gauss–Bonnet
theorem, are worked out from scratch here.
The book begins with a nonrigorous overview of the subject in Chapter 1,
designed to introduce some of the intuitions underlying the notion of curvature and
to link them with elementary geometric ideas the student has seen before. Chapter 2
begins the course proper, with definitions of Riemannian metrics and some of their
attendant flora and fauna. Here I also introduce pseudo-Riemannian metrics, which
play a central role in Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Although I do not
attempt to provide a comprehensive introduction to pseudo-Riemannian geometry,
throughout the book I do point out which of the constructions and theorems of
Riemannian geometry carry over easily to the pseudo-Riemannian case and which
do not.
Chapter 3 describes some of the most important “model spaces” of Riemannian
and pseudo-Riemannian geometry—those with lots of symmetry—with a great deal
of detailed computation. These models form a sort of leitmotif throughout the text,
serving as illustrations and testbeds for the abstract theory as it is developed.
Chapter 4 introduces connections, together with some fundamental constructions
associated with them such as geodesics and parallel transport. In order to isolate the
important properties of connections that are independent of the metric, as well as to
lay the groundwork for their further study in arenas that are beyond the scope of this
book, such as the Chern–Weil theory of characteristic classes and the Donaldson and
Seiberg–Witten theories of gauge fields, connections are defined first on arbitrary
vector bundles. This has the further advantage of making it easy to define the induced
connections on tensor bundles. Chapter 5 investigates connections in the context of
Riemannian (and pseudo-Riemannian) manifolds, developing the Levi-Civita con-
nection, its geodesics, the exponential map, and normal coordinates. Chapter 6
continues the study of geodesics, focusing on their distance-minimizing properties.
First, some elementary ideas from the calculus of variations are introduced to prove
that every distance-minimizing curve is a geodesic. Then the Gauss lemma is used to
prove the (partial) converse—that every geodesic is locally minimizing.
Chapter 7 unveils the first fully general definition of curvature. The curvature
tensor is motivated initially by the question whether all Riemannian metrics are
“flat” (that is, locally isometric to the Euclidean metric). It turns out that the failure
of parallel transport to be path-independent is the primary obstruction to the
existence of a local isometry. This leads naturally to a qualitative interpretation of
curvature as the obstruction to flatness. Chapter 8 is an investigation of submanifold
theory, leading to the definition of sectional curvatures, which give curvature a
more quantitative geometric interpretation.
The last four chapters are devoted to the development of some of the most
important global theorems relating geometry to topology. Chapter 9 gives a simple
moving-frames proof of the Gauss–Bonnet theorem, based on a careful treatment of
Hopf’s rotation index theorem (often known by its German name, the Umlaufsatz).
Chapter 10 has a largely technical nature, covering Jacobi fields, conjugate points,
viii Preface
the second variation formula, and the index form for later use in comparison
theorems. Chapter 11 introduces comparison theory, using a simple comparison
theorem for matrix Riccati equations to prove the fundamental fact that bounds on
curvature lead to bounds (in the opposite direction) on the size of Jacobi fields,
which in turn lead to bounds on many fundamental geometric quantities, such as
distances, diameters, and volumes. Finally, in Chapter 12 comes the denouement:
proofs of some of the most important local-to-global theorems illustrating the ways
in which curvature and topology affect each other.
This book contains many questions for the reader that deserve special mention.
They fall into two categories: “exercises,” which are integrated into the text, and
“problems,” grouped at the end of each chapter. Both are essential to a full
understanding of the material, but they are of somewhat different characters and
serve different purposes.
The exercises include some background material that the student should have
seen already in an earlier course, some proofs that fill in the gaps from the text,
some simple but illuminating examples, and some intermediate results that are used
in the text or the problems. They are, in general, elementary, but they are not
optional—indeed, they are integral to the continuity of the text. They are chosen
and timed so as to give the reader opportunities to pause and think over the material
that has just been introduced, to practice working with the definitions, and to
develop skills that are used later in the book. I recommend that students stop and do
each exercise as it occurs in the text, or at least convince themselves that they know
what is involved in the solution of each one, before going any further.
The problems that conclude the chapters are generally more difficult than the
exercises, some of them considerably so, and should be considered a central part
of the book by any student who is serious about learning the subject. They not only
introduce new material not covered in the body of the text, but they also provide the
student with indispensable practice in using the techniques explained in the text,
both for doing computations and for proving theorems. If the result of a problem is
used in an essential way in the text, or in a later problem, the page where it is used is
noted at the end of the problem statement. Instructors might want to present some
of these problems in class if more than a semester is available.
At the end of the book there are three appendices that contain brief reviews of
background material on smooth manifolds, tensors, and Lie groups. I have omitted
most of the proofs, but included references to other books where they may be
found. The results are collected here in order to clarify what results from topology
and smooth manifold theory this book will draw on, and also to establish definitions
and conventions that are used throughout the book. I recommend that most readers
at least glance through the appendices before reading the rest of the book, and
consider consulting the indicated references for any topics that are unfamiliar.
Preface ix
This second edition, titled Introduction to Riemannian Manifolds, has been adapted
from my earlier book Riemannian Manifolds: An Introduction to Curvature,
Graduate Texts in Mathematics 176, Springer 1997.
For those familiar with the first edition, the first difference you will notice about
this edition is that it is considerably longer than the first. To some extent, this is due
to the addition of more thorough explanations of some of the concepts. But a much
more significant reason for the increased length is the addition of many topics that
were not covered in the first edition. Here are some of the most important ones: a
somewhat expanded treatment of pseudo-Riemannian metrics, together with more
consistent explanations of which parts of the theory apply to them; a more detailed
treatment of which homogeneous spaces admit invariant metrics; a new treatment of
general distance functions and semigeodesic coordinates; introduction of the Weyl
tensor and the transformation laws for various curvatures under conformal changes
of metric; derivation of the variational equations for hypersurfaces that minimize
area with fixed boundary or fixed enclosed volume; an introduction to symmetric
spaces; and a treatment of the basic properties of the cut locus. Most importantly,
the entire treatment of comparison theory has been revamped and expanded based
on Riccati equations, and a handful of local-to-global theorems have been added
that were not present in the first edition: Cartan’s torsion theorem, Preissman’s
theorem, Cheng’s maximal diameter theorem, Milnor’s theorem on polynomial
growth of the fundamental group, and Synge’s theorem. I hope these will make the
book much more useful.
I am aware, though, that one of the attractions of the first edition for some
readers was its brevity. For those who would prefer a more streamlined path toward
the main local-to-global theorems in Chapter 12, here are topics that can be omitted
on a first pass through the book without essential loss of continuity.
• Chapter 2: Other generalizations of Riemannian metrics
• Chapter 3: Other homogeneous Riemannian manifolds and model pseudo-
Riemannian manifolds
• Chapter 5: Tubular neighborhoods, Fermi coordinates, and Euclidean and
non-Euclidean geometries
• Chapter 6: Distance functions and semigeodesic coordinates
• Chapter 7: The Weyl tensor and curvatures of conformally related metrics
• Chapter 8: Computations in semigeodesic coordinates, minimal hypersur-
faces, and constant-mean-curvature hypersurfaces
• Chapter 9: The entire chapter
• Chapter 10: Locally symmetric spaces and cut points
• Chapter 11: Günther’s volume comparison theorem and the Bishop–Gromov
volume comparison theorem
• Chapter 12: All but the theorems of Killing–Hopf, Cartan–Hadamard, and
Myers
x Preface
In addition to the major changes listed above, there are thousands of minor ones
throughout the book. Of course, I have attempted to correct all of the mistakes that I
became aware of in the first edition. Unfortunately, I surely have not been able to
avoid introducing new ones, so if you find anything that seems amiss, please let me
know by contacting me through the website listed below. I will keep an updated list
of corrections on that website.
I have also adjusted my notation and terminology to be consistent with my two
other graduate texts [LeeSM, LeeTM] and hopefully to be more consistent with
commonly accepted usage. Like those books, this one now has a notation index just
before the subject index, and it uses the same typographical conventions: mathema-
tical terms are typeset in bold italics when they are officially defined; exercises in
the text are indented, numbered consecutively with the theorems, and marked with
the special symbol I to make them easier to find; the ends of numbered examples
are marked with the symbol //; and the entire book is now set in Times Roman,
supplemented by the MathTime Professional II mathematics fonts created by
Personal TEX, Inc.
Acknowledgements
I owe an unpayable debt to the authors of the many Riemannian geometry books I
have used and cherished over the years, especially the ones mentioned above—I
have done little more than rearrange their ideas into a form that seems handy for
teaching. Beyond that, I would like to thank my Ph.D. advisor, Richard Melrose,
who many years ago introduced me to differential geometry in his eccentric but
thoroughly enlightening way; my colleagues Judith Arms, Yu Yuan, and Jim
Isenberg, who have provided great help in sorting out what topics should be
included; and all of the graduate students at the University of Washington who have
suffered with amazing grace through the many flawed drafts of both editions of this
book and have provided invaluable feedback, especially Jed Mihalisin, David
Sprehn, Collin Litterell, and Maddie Burkhart. And my deepest gratitude goes to
Ina Mette of Springer-Verlag (now at the AMS), who first convinced me to turn my
lecture notes into a book; without her encouragement, I would never have become a
textbook author.
Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to the memory of my late colleague
Steve Mitchell, who by his sparkling and joyful example taught me more about
teaching and writing than anyone.
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
1 What Is Curvature? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The Euclidean Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Surfaces in Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Curvature in Higher Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Riemannian Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Methods for Constructing Riemannian Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Basic Constructions on Riemannian Manifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Lengths and Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Pseudo-Riemannian Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Other Generalizations of Riemannian Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4 Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
The Problem of Differentiating Vector Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Covariant Derivatives of Tensor Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Vector and Tensor Fields Along Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
xi
xii Contents
Geodesics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Parallel Transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Pullback Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
7 Curvature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Local Invariants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
The Curvature Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Flat Manifolds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Symmetries of the Curvature Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
The Ricci Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Ricci and Scalar Curvatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
The Weyl Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Curvatures of Conformally Related Metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
If you have spent some time studying modern differential geometry, with its intricate
web of manifolds, submanifolds, vector fields, Lie derivatives, tensor fields, differ-
ential forms, orientations, and foliations, you might be forgiven for wondering what
it all has to do with geometry. In most people’s experience, geometry is concerned
with properties such as distances, lengths, angles, areas, volumes, and curvature.
These concepts, however, are often barely mentioned in typical beginning graduate
courses in smooth manifold theory.
The purpose of this book is to introduce the theory of Riemannian manifolds:
these are smooth manifolds equipped with Riemannian metrics (smoothly varying
choices of inner products on tangent spaces), which allow one to measure geometric
quantities such as distances and angles. This is the branch of differential geometry in
which “geometric” ideas, in the familiar sense of the word, come to the fore. It is the
direct descendant of Euclid’s plane and solid geometry, by way of Gauss’s theory of
curved surfaces in space, and it is a dynamic subject of contemporary research.
The central unifying theme in current Riemannian geometry research is the
notion of curvature and its relation to topology. This book is designed to help you
develop both the tools and the intuition you will need for an in-depth exploration
of curvature in the Riemannian setting. Unfortunately, as you will soon discover, an
adequate development of curvature in an arbitrary number of dimensions requires
a great deal of technical machinery, making it easy to lose sight of the underlying
geometric content. To put the subject in perspective, therefore, let us begin by asking
some very basic questions: What is curvature? What are some important theorems
about it? In this chapter, we explore these and related questions in an informal way,
without proofs. The “official” treatment of the subject begins in Chapter 2.
Theorem 1.1 (Side-Side-Side). Two Euclidean triangles are congruent if and only
if the lengths of their corresponding sides are equal.
Theorem 1.2 (Angle-Sum Theorem). The sum of the interior angles of a Euclidean
triangle is .
As trivial as they may seem, these theorems serve to illustrate two major types of
results that permeate the study of geometry; in this book, we call them “classification
theorems” and “local-to-global theorems.”
The side-side-side (SSS) theorem is a classification theorem. Such a theorem
tells us how to determine whether two mathematical objects are equivalent (under
some appropriate equivalence relation). An ideal classification theorem lists a small
number of computable invariants (whatever “small” may mean in a given context),
and says that two objects are equivalent if and only if all of these invariants match.
In this case the equivalence relation is congruence, and the invariants are the three
side lengths.
The angle-sum theorem is of a different sort. It relates a local geometric property
(angle measure) to a global property (that of being a three-sided polygon or triangle).
Most of the theorems we study in this book are of this type, which, for lack of a
better name, we call local-to-global theorems.
After proving the basic facts about points and lines and the figures constructed
directly from them, one can go on to study other figures derived from the basic
elements, such as circles. Two typical results about circles are given below; the first
is a classification theorem, while the second is a local-to-global theorem. (It may not
be obvious at this point why we consider the second to be a local-to-global theorem,
but it will become clearer soon.)
Theorem 1.3 (Circle Classification Theorem). Two circles in the Euclidean plane
are congruent if and only if they have the same radius.
(Here and throughout this book, the word “curve” refers to a parametrized curve,
not a set of points. Typically, a curve will be defined as a smooth function of a real
variable t , with a prime representing an ordinary derivative with respect to t .)
Geometrically, the curvature has the following interpretation. Given a point
p D .t /, there are many circles tangent to at p—namely, those circles whose
velocity vector at p is the same as that of when both are given unit-speed
parametrizations; these are the circles whose centers lie on the line that passes
through p and is orthogonal to 0 .p/. Among these circles, there is exactly one
unit-speed parametrized circle whose acceleration vector at p is the same as that of
; it is called the osculating circle (Fig. 1.1). (If the acceleration of is zero, replace
the osculating circle by a straight line, thought of as a “circle with infinite radius.”)
The curvature is then .t / D 1=R, where R is the radius of the osculating circle.
The larger the curvature, the greater the acceleration and the smaller the osculating
circle, and therefore the faster the curve is turning. A circle of radius R has constant
curvature 1=R, while a straight line has curvature zero.
It is often convenient for some purposes to extend the definition of the curvature
of a plane curve, allowing it to take on both positive and negative values. This is done
by choosing a continuous unit normal vector field N along the curve, and assigning
the curvature a positive sign if the curve is turning toward the chosen normal or a
negative sign if it is turning away from it. The resulting function N along the curve
is then called the signed curvature.
Here are two typical theorems about plane curves.
The first of these is a classification theorem, as its name suggests. The second
is a local-to-global theorem, since it relates the local property of curvature to the
global (topological) property of being a simple closed curve. We will prove both of
these theorems later in the book: the second will be derived as a consequence of a
more general result in Chapter 9 (see Corollary 9.6); the proof of the first is left to
Problem 9-12.
It is interesting to note that when we specialize to circles, these theorems reduce
to the two theorems about circles above: Theorem 1.5 says that two circles are con-
gruent if and only if they have the same curvature, while Theorem 1.6 says that if
a circle has curvature and circumference C , then C D 2. It is easy to see that
these two results are equivalent to Theorems 1.3 and 1.4. This is why it makes sense
to regard the circumference theorem as a local-to-global theorem.
Surfaces in Space
The next step in generalizing Euclidean geometry is to start working in three dimen-
sions. After investigating the basic elements of “solid geometry”—points, lines,
planes, polyhedra, spheres, distances, angles, surface areas, volumes—one is led
to study more general curved surfaces in space (2-dimensional embedded subman-
ifolds of R3 , in the language of differential geometry). The basic invariant in this
setting is again curvature, but it is a bit more complicated than for plane curves,
because a surface can curve differently in different directions.
The curvature of a surface in space is described by two numbers at each point,
called the principal curvatures. We will define them formally in Chapter 8, but here
is an informal recipe for computing them. Suppose S is a surface in R3 , p is a point
in S , and N is a unit normal vector to S at p.
1. Choose a plane ˘ passing through p and parallel to N . The intersection of ˘
with a neighborhood of p in S is a plane curve ˘ containing p (Fig. 1.2).
2. Compute the signed curvature N of at p with respect to the chosen unit
normal N .
3. Repeat this for all normal planes ˘ . The principal curvatures of S at p,
denoted by 1 and 2 , are the minimum and maximum signed curvatures so
obtained.
Although the principal curvatures give us a lot of information about the geome-
try of S , they do not directly address a question that turns out to be of paramount
importance in Riemannian geometry: Which properties of a surface are intrinsic?
Roughly speaking, intrinsic properties are those that could in principle be measured
or computed by a 2-dimensional being living entirely within the surface. More pre-
cisely, a property of surfaces in R3 is called intrinsic if it is preserved by isometries
(maps from one surface to another that preserve lengths of curves).
To see that the principal curvatures are not intrinsic, consider the following two
embedded surfaces S1 and S2 in R3 (Figs. 1.3 and 1.4): S1 is the square in the xy-
Surfaces in Space 5
plane where 0 < x < and 0 < y < , and S2 is the half-cylinder f.x; y; z/ W z D
p
1 y 2 ; 0 < x < ; jyj < 1g. If we follow the recipe above for computing principal
curvatures (using, say, the downward-pointing unit normal), we find that, since all
planes intersect S1 in straight lines, the principal curvatures of S1 are 1 D 2 D 0.
On the other hand, it is not hard to see that the principal curvatures of S2 are 1 D 0
and 2 D 1. However, the map taking .x; y; 0/ to .x; cos y; sin y/ is a diffeomorphism
from S1 to S2 that preserves lengths of curves, and is thus an isometry.
Even though the principal curvatures are not intrinsic, the great German mathe-
matician Carl Friedrich Gauss made the surprising discovery in 1827 [Gau65] that
a particular combination of them is intrinsic. (See also [Spi79, Vol. 2] for an excel-
lent discussion of the details of Gauss’s paper.) He found a proof that the product
K D 1 2 , now called the Gaussian curvature, is intrinsic. He thought this result
was so amazing that he named it Theorema Egregium. (This does not mean “totally
awful theorem” as its English cognate egregious might suggest; a better translation
into modern colloquial English might be “totally awesome theorem.”)
6 1 What Is Curvature?
To get a feeling for what Gaussian curvature tells us about surfaces, let us look at
a few examples. Simplest of all is any surface that is an open subset of a plane: as we
have seen, such a surface has both principal curvatures equal to zero and therefore
has constant Gaussian curvature equal to zero. The half-cylinder described above
also has K D 1 2 D 0 1 D 0, as the Theorema Egregium tells us it must, being iso-
metric to a square. Another simple example is a sphere of radius R. Every normal
plane intersects the sphere in a great circle, which has radius R and therefore curva-
ture ˙1=R (with the sign depending on whether we choose the outward-pointing or
inward-pointing normal). Thus the principal curvatures are both equal to ˙1=R, and
the Gaussian curvature is 1 2 D 1=R2 . Note that while the signs of the principal
curvatures depend on the choice of unit normal, the Gaussian curvature does not: it
is always positive on the sphere.
Similarly, any surface that is “bowl-shaped” or “dome-shaped” has positive
Gaussian curvature (Fig. 1.5), because the two principal curvatures always have the
same sign, regardless of which normal is chosen. On the other hand, the Gaussian
curvature of any surface that is “saddle-shaped” (Fig. 1.6) is negative, because the
principal curvatures are of opposite signs.
The model spaces of surface theory are the surfaces with constant Gaussian cur-
vature. We have already seen two of them: the Euclidean plane R2 (K D 0), and the
sphere of radius R (K D 1=R2 ). The most important model surface with constant
negative Gaussian curvature is called the hyperbolic plane, and will be defined in
Chapter 3. It is not so easy to visualize because it cannot be realized globally as a
smoothly embedded surface in R3 (see [Spi79, Vol. 3, pp. 373–385] for a proof).
Surface theory is a highly developed branch of geometry. Of all its results, two—
a classification theorem and a local-to-global theorem—are generally acknowledged
as the most important.
Theorem 1.7 (Uniformization Theorem). Every connected 2-manifold is diffeo-
morphic to a quotient of one of the constant-curvature model surfaces described
above by a discrete group of isometries without fixed points. Thus every connected
2-manifold has a complete Riemannian metric with constant Gaussian curvature.
Theorem 1.8 (Gauss–Bonnet Theorem). Suppose S is a compact Riemannian 2-
manifold. Then
Z
K dA D 2.S /;
S
We end our survey of the basic ideas of Riemannian geometry by mentioning briefly
how curvature appears in higher dimensions. Suppose M is an n-dimensional Rie-
mannian manifold. As with surfaces, the basic geometric invariant is curvature, but
curvature becomes a much more complicated quantity in higher dimensions because
a manifold may curve in so many different directions.
The first problem we must contend with is that, in general, Riemannian mani-
folds are not presented to us as embedded submanifolds of Euclidean space. There-
fore, we must abandon the idea of cutting out curves by intersecting our manifold
with planes, as we did when defining the principal curvatures of a surface in R3 .
Instead, we need a more intrinsic way of sweeping out submanifolds. Fortunately,
geodesics—curves that are the shortest paths between nearby points—are ready-
made tools for this and many other purposes in Riemannian geometry. Examples
are straight lines in Euclidean space and great circles on a sphere.
The most fundamental fact about geodesics, which we prove in Chapter 4, is
that given any point p 2 M and any vector v tangent to M at p, there is a unique
geodesic starting at p with initial velocity v.
Here is a brief recipe for computing some curvatures at a point p 2 M .
1. Choose a 2-dimensional subspace ˘ of the tangent space to M at p.
8 1 What Is Curvature?
2. Look at all the geodesics through p whose initial velocities lie in the selected
plane ˘ . It turns out that near p these sweep out a certain 2-dimensional sub-
manifold S˘ of M , which inherits a Riemannian metric from M .
3. Compute the Gaussian curvature of S˘ at p, which the Theorema Egregium
tells us can be computed from the Riemannian metric that S˘ inherits from M .
This gives a number, denoted by sec.˘ /, called the sectional curvature of M
at p associated with the plane ˘ .
Thus the “curvature” of M at p has to be interpreted as a map
˚
sec W 2-planes in Tp M ! R:
Looking back at the remarks concluding the section on surfaces above, you can
see that these last three theorems generalize some of the consequences of the uni-
formization and Gauss–Bonnet theorems, although not their full strength. It is the
primary goal of this book to prove Theorems 1.9, 1.10, and 1.11, among others; it is
a primary goal of current research in Riemannian geometry to improve upon them
and further generalize the results of surface theory to higher dimensions.
Chapter 2
Riemannian Metrics
In this chapter we officially define Riemannian metrics, and discuss some of the
basic computational techniques associated with them. After the definitions, we
describe a few standard methods for constructing Riemannian manifolds as subman-
ifolds, products, and quotients of other Riemannian manifolds. Then we introduce
some of the elementary geometric constructions provided by Riemannian metrics,
the most important of which is the Riemannian distance function, which turns every
connected Riemannian manifold into a metric space.
At the end of the chapter, we discuss some important generalizations of Rie-
mannian metrics—most importantly, the pseudo-Riemannian metrics, followed by
brief mentions of sub-Riemannian and Finsler metrics.
Before you read this chapter, it would be a good idea to skim through the three
appendices after Chapter 12 to get an idea of the prerequisite material that will be
assumed throughout this book.
Definitions
Everything we know about the Euclidean geometry of Rn can be derived from its
dot product, which is defined for v D .v 1 ; : : : ; v n / and w D .w 1 ; : : : ; w n / by
X
n
vw D vi wi :
iD1
The dot product has a natural generalization to arbitrary vector spaces. Given a
vector space V (which we always assume to be real), an inner product on V is
a map V V ! R, typically written .v; w/ 7! hv; wi, that satisfies the following
properties for all v; w; x 2 V and a; b 2 R:
(i) S YMMETRY: hv; wi D hw; vi.
(ii) B ILINEARITY: hav C bw; xi D ahv; xi C bhw; xi D hx; av C bwi.
If two vector spaces V and W are both equipped with inner products, de-
noted by h; iV and h; iW , respectively, then a map F W V ! W is called a lin-
ear isometry if it is a vector space isomorphism that preserves inner products:
hF .v/; F .v 0 /iW D hv; v 0 iV . If V and W are inner product spaces of dimension n,
then given any choices of orthonormal bases .v1 ; : : : ; vn / for V and .w1 ; : : : ; wn / for
W , the linear map F W V ! W determined by F .vi / D wi is easily seen to be a lin-
ear isometry. Thus all inner product spaces of the same finite dimension are linearly
isometric to each other.
Riemannian Metrics
Using this inner product, we can define lengths of tangent vectors, angles between
nonzero tangent vectors, and orthogonality of tangent vectors as described above.
The length of a vector v 2 Tp M is denoted by jvjg D hv; vi1=2 g . If the metric is
understood, we sometimes omit it from the notation, and write hv; wi and jvj in
place of hv; wig and jvjg , respectively.
The starting point for Riemannian geometry is the following fundamental exam-
ple.
Example 2.6 (The Euclidean Metric). The Euclidean metric is the Riemannian
metric gx on Rn whose value at each x 2 Rn is just the usual dot product on Tx Rn
1Tx R Š R . This P w 2 Tx Rn writ-
n n
under the natural identification means that for v;P
ten in standard coordinates x ; : : : ; x as v D i v @i jx , w D j w j @j jx , we
n i
have
Xn
hv; wigx D vi wi :
iD1
Isometries
Suppose .M; g/ and M ; gz are Riemannian manifolds with or without boundary.
An isometry from .M ;g/ to M f ,e
g is a diffeomorphism ' W M ! M such that
' gz D g. Unwinding the definitions shows that this is equivalent to the requirement
that ' be a smooth bijection and each d'p W Tp M ! T'.p/ M be a lin-
differential
ear isometry. We say .M; g/ and M ; gz are isometric if there exists an isometry
between them.
A composition of isometries and the inverse of an isometry are again isometries,
so being isometric is an equivalence relation on the class of Riemannian manifolds
with or without boundary. Our subject, Riemannian geometry, is concerned primar-
ily with properties of Riemannian
manifolds that are preserved by isometries.
If .M; g/ and M ; gz are Riemannian manifolds, a map ' W M ! M is a local
isometry if each point p 2 M has a neighborhood U such that 'jU is an isometry
onto an open subset of M .
;g
I Exercise 2.7. Prove that if .M; g/ and M z are Riemannian manifolds of the same
is a local isometry if and only if ' g
dimension, a smooth map ' W M ! M z D g.
Rn with its Euclidean metric. Problem 2-1 shows that all Riemannian 1-manifolds
are flat; but we will see later that this is far from the case in higher dimensions.
An isometry from .M; g/ to itself is called an isometry of .M ,g/. The set of
all isometries of .M; g/ is a group under composition, called the isometry group
of .M ,g/; it is denoted by Iso.M; g/, or sometimes just Iso.M / if the metric is
understood.
A deep theorem of Sumner B. Myers and Norman E. Steenrod [MS39] shows
that if M has finitely many components, then Iso.M; g/ has a topology and smooth
structure making it into a finite-dimensional Lie group acting smoothly on M . We
will neither prove nor use the Myers–Steenrod theorem, but if you are interested, a
good source for the proof is [Kob72].
g D gij dx i ˝ dx j
D 12 gij dx i ˝ dx j C gj i dx i ˝ dx j
D 12 gij dx i ˝ dx j C gij dx j ˝ dx i
D gij dx i dx j :
hEi ; Ej i D ıij ;
g D ."1 /2 C C ."n /2 ;
where ."i /2 denotes the symmetric product "i "i D "i ˝ "i .
Proposition 2.8 (Existence of Orthonormal Frames). Let .M; g/ be a Riemannian
n-manifold with or without boundary. If .Xj / is any smooth local frame for TM
over an open subset U M , thenthere is a smooth orthonormal
frame .Ej / over
U such that span E1 jp ; : : : ; Ek jp D span X1 jp ; : : : ; Xk jp for each k D 1; : : : ; n
and each p 2 U . In particular, for every p 2 M , there is a smooth orthonormal
frame .Ej / defined on some neighborhood of p.
Proof. Applying the Gram–Schmidt algorithm to the vectors X1 jp ; : : : ; Xn jp at
each p 2 U , we obtain an ordered n-tuple of rough orthonormal vector fields
.E1 ; : : : ; En / over U satisfying the span conditions. Because the vectors whose
norms appear in the denominators of (2.5)–(2.6) are nowhere vanishing, those for-
mulas show that each vector field Ej is smooth. The last statement of the proposition
follows by applying this construction to any smooth local frame in a neighborhood
of p.
Warning: A common mistake made by beginners is to assume that one can find
coordinates near p such that the coordinate frame .@i / is orthonormal. Proposition
2.8 does not show this. In fact, as we will see in Chapter 7, this is possible only
when the metric is flat, that is, locally isometric to the Euclidean metric.
For a Riemannian manifold .M; g/ with or without boundary, we define the unit
tangent bundle to be the subset U TM TM consisting of unit vectors:
˚
U TM D .p; v/ 2 TM W jvjg D 1 : (2.10)
Riemannian Submanifolds
This protest was entered against the Martial Law Bill for Ireland.
The composition is Francis’s, whose brevity and terseness make the
performance nonsense.[172] Mr. Pitt remarked that the sentence
which asserts the incompatibility of the character of subject and
enemy is the precise definition of a traitor.
This foolish Protest made a great deal of noise; Ld. Clare moved
the expunging it on account of its treasonable and seditious
tendency, which was opposed by 17 peers, some of very respectable
characters. I quarrelled with Francis, and would not make peace with
him. His explanation was worse than the original offence; he
declared that he disapproved of the sentiments, and feared the
making them public would get the protesters into a scrape. Then why
abet and assist what you think mischievous and of bad consequence
to your friends?
Ld. Wycombe returned about a fortnight since from Paris, and tho’
he will not see me, he has entrusted his journal for my inspection.
‘Paris, which I had known under so many different circumstances,
and which I had originally known in times so very opposite to these.
It is an observation of Thucydides that, in the country of which he
was a native and of which he wrote, the traveller could not take a
step without treading on historic ground. With equal truth may it be
said that it is impossible to traverse Paris, without at each step being
reminded of occurrences which are destined to become the
materials of future history: occurrences which are the more striking,
inasmuch as they have not been received by us on the faith of
tradition obscured by the lapse of ages or gathered from the Annals
of our ancestors, but have taken place within our own memories,
have involved the fall of persons we ourselves have known, have
overwhelmed institutions with which we have been personally
conversant, and have already materially affected the destinies of the
generation to which we belong.’
‘The most eloquent discourse cannot half so well illustrate the
character of human passion, the vicissitudes of human fortune, the
vanity of human pursuits, and the instability of human things, as the
aspect of this metropolis.’
‘When we were within a few steps of the
Théâtre de la République we were surprised by an THE INFERNAL
explosion resembling the report of a cannon.[173] MACHINE
On stepping out of the carriage I perceived a
column of smoke making its way over the tops of the houses. In an
instant the rattling of cavalry announced the approach of the First
Consul, who drove by us with rapidity. We entered the theatre lost in
conjecture as to the probable cause of so strange and sinister an
incident. We had but little disposition to attend to the business of the
drama, which was presently put a stop to by the account of that
heinous atrocity which exhibits such a melancholy instance of the
most deliberate depravity, and which had so nearly terminated the
transcendent career of that illustrious man, whose fame will be more
durable than the Pyramids he has visited, whose life is consumed in
a succession of dangers, whose preservation should be dear not
only to all good citizens, but to all good men, whose fortunes may be
deemed inseparable from the fortunes of the Republic. The actor
who came forward upon this occasion made the audience
acquainted neither with extent or particulars of the misfortune which
made it indecent to proceed. The theatre was immediately
evacuated; guards were seen moving in various directions, and the
measures of precaution were taken with a degree of calmness,
quickness, precision, and intelligence which served to give me some
idea of the perfection of the military system.
‘No one was able to tell what was the number of persons who had
been killed and wounded; but it was understood that the disaster had
originated in an attempt to destroy the First Consul in his way to the
Opera. At the portico of the Opera, I heard that the performance was
going on without interruption, and that Bonaparte, unmoved, was
partaking of the entertainment, which was an Oratorio,[174] as if
nothing unusual had happened. The next morning heard a few
particulars; some of the manner in which the Chief Consul had
conducted himself. He appears to have expressed a conviction that
in his situation and at a period like the present, such an occurrence
was not to be considered as being justly matter of surprise. He told
those who had an opportunity of seeing him that when, a short time
before, his life had been conspired against, he felt no particular
solicitude in relation to the punishment of a crime which seemed to
have him only for its object; but that now when the blow which was
levelled at himself had fallen upon others, when the safety of a part
of the population of the capital had been actually endangered, and
when several individuals had become the innocent victims of so
great an atrocity, he should not hesitate to demand a law authorising
the immediate trial of those who might prove implicated in its guilt.
That as to what regarded himself personally, he should die with as
much glory at the head of the Legislature as he could do at the head
of one of the armies of the Republic. To the Prefect of the Police[175]
he expressed his dissatisfaction with an asperity which sufficiently
proved that he imputed a defect of vigilance to that department.’...
‘Went to the Review. In front of the Thuilleries
were drawn up the Grenadiers of the Consular A REVIEW
Guard, who had followed Bonaparte to Marengo,
and had from their conduct in that memorable battle been compared
by Berthier to a redoubt of granite. On ye remaining sides of the
square were drawn up other troops. In the centre of the place were
stationed the officers of the État Major on horseback, whose
uniforms and accoutrements were splendid to the greatest degree. A
beautiful cream-coloured Spanish horse, adorned with crimson
velvet, magnificently embroidered in gold, was held in readiness for
Bonaparte. A sudden burst of martial music, issuing from a profusion
of instruments, proclaimed his descent from the Palace. He wears no
plume. He is distinguished by the quietness of his deportment, the
pensiveness of his aspect, and by the paleness of his countenance,
which thought and watchfulness have worn. He was attended by his
Mameluke. Mounted on his docile charger, he galloped thro’ the
ranks. The air resounded with acclamations of applause, to which he
seemed insensible. His attention was confined to the troops. When
he passed the colours he saluted with a singular propriety of manner.
After having rapidly inspected the difft. corps, he rode to the centre
of the ground, where he prescribed the evolutions of the day, which
took up very little time. Nothing can exceed the precision and
intelligence with which the whole manœuvre is conducted. I
particularly remarked the fine appearance of the Pioneers, who, as
well as the Grenadiers, seem to be picked men. The flying Artillery is
much to be admired, but the horses of the Dragoons, altho’ active,
were inferior in beauty to those which are commonly purchased for
the English Cavalry.’...
‘One of the party had been in the society of the First Consul,
where General Lannes was present, subsequent to the villainous
attempt made in the Rue Nicaise. B. observed that when the
circumstance took place he was a great way off in imagination, that
the explosion had been heard by him without reflection, and that he
was first excited to attend by Lannes, who was with him. General
Lannes explained by saying that he thought at the time, by the
breaking of the glasses, that musketry might be firing at them.
‘Lannes,’ said B., ‘you are not of the Institute; if you were, you would
have known that it was the air contained within my carriage which
broke the windows of it.’
On 16th May, 1801, I dined at Mrs. Sharp’s, in the City, on Irish
Hill, to meet Horne Tooke. He was ill, and in all probability would not
have kept his engagement, had he not been aware that the dinner
was expressly made to give me an opportunity of seeing him, and
wise as he is, he is not free from the frailty of the weak (and
oftentimes of the wise, as in this instance), in possessing a
considerable portion of vanity, for he was gratified at knowing he was
sought as a sight. He is an infirm, exhausted old man, with a mild,
placid countenance, a small penetrating eye, and a flat, broad
forehead. His manners are those of a remarkably high-bred, old-
fashioned man of quality; his sentences are precise, clear, and short.
His language obsolete and affectedly so, but often productive of a
happy and singular effect, witty and brief. He so evidently laboured
under the pressure of bodily pain that he only flashed, but from those
scintillations I could easily perceive what he must have been in his
days of vigour, when his mind, unfettered by physical infirmity, could
give itself full scope. His praises of Mr. Fox were extravagant. He
said: ‘God Almighty has made that man to show his omnipotence.’
He said to Ld. H.: ‘You see, my Lord, how your uncle has kicked me
in the dirt!’ The answer was puzzling, as it was difficult to know to
what he alluded, but he explained by adding: ‘He makes me despise
myself. He, whom I have abused from the commencement of his
political life, has been the first and only person who stood manfully
forth in my defence.’[176]
17th Nov., 1801.—Indisposition and indolence have combined to
prevent my either writing, reading, or thinking for three several
months back—after our return from Worthing. We stayed here about
a month, during which period we went to Ld. King’s at Ockham, to
Roehampton, and dined at Chiswick, and at Dss. of Leinster’s at
Wimbledon. Went to Brighthelmstone, September 15th; stayed there
till October 21st. During that interval passed 6 days at Ld. Robert
Spencer’s at Woolbeding. I called at Goodwood, D. of Richmond’s,
on our way back to Brighton; returned here October 22nd. Sleep
occasionally at a house we have taken in Albemarle Street for the
play-nights and the late nights in H. of Lords.
Peace has been made. Pitt continues
supporting Ministers; the Grenvilles are in open MINISTERIAL
opposition.[177] A negotiation has just broken off NEGOTIATION
between Grey and Ld. St. Vincent, the purport of S
which was to bring in G., the Duke of Bedford, and Ld. Moira into the
Cabinet. Grey gave up Fox with a quibble; the others excluded
Sheridan, Lauderdale, and Lansdown; insisted upon maintaining Ld.
Clare in Ireland, and Ld. Hardwick. G. said, if he is kept, we must
have a Ld.-Lt.; they would not agree. Ld. Moira objected to D. of
Portland; King could not be made to give him up. The arrangement,
when they came to terms, could not take place. G. used the D. of
B.’s name further than he was warranted, I suspect. It is all over
now; only Tierney remains with Addington.
Fox was given up shamefully. For if ever one man was bound to
follow the bad and good fortunes of another, it is surely Grey, whose
vehement and rash judgment drove the other out of the high post he
occupied; and yet he is the first to negotiate and give him up. Fie, fie,
for such patriots, when they are not true to their friends as private
men. However, Grey is perfectly honest, only violent and irresolute,
and easily swayed by sudden impressions. Pelham[178] is Secretary
of State for the Home Department: he is married to Lady Mary
Osborne, the Duke of Leeds’s sister, an amiable person, who will no
doubt make him happy.
H. House, 18th Nov., 1801.—General Fitzpatrick told us yesterday
of a curious circumstance about a copy of Gibbon’s works, which
belonged to Mr. Fox. As a marginal note Fox wrote in the beginning
of the book, ‘This gentleman, on such a day, told me that the country
could not be saved unless the heads of three or four of the Cabinet
Ministers were laid upon the table of the House of Commons. On
such a day, about a week after he delivered that opinion, he was
made a Lord of Trade by those very men.’ Topham Beauclerk, who
was a friend of Gibbon’s, offered him anything for the book, saying: ‘I
must soon die, and my books will be sold after my death by public
auction, so Gibbon’s shabbiness will be notorious and perpetuated.’
Some time after, an execution was put into Mr. Fox’s house, and his
goods were seized, but, having been assigned over to Mr. Moore,
their seizure was resisted. There was, in consequence, a trial in the
Court of King’s Bench, and one of the opposite counsel handed up
this very book to Ld. Loughborough, to prove to him that Mr. Fox
must have considered the book as his own, and not as Mr. Moore’s,
by the marginal notes, and that if necessary they should be read in
court. Ld. L., who was a more cautious friend than Topham
Beauclerk, gave the book back, saying it was unnecessary to read
them to the court. Ye General was a party to the bond, and was in
court himself when this passed.
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