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Differential Geometry Lecture Notes

Differential geometry studies curves and surfaces using calculus and linear algebra. The document defines key concepts in differential geometry including: 1) Differentiable curves as smooth maps from an interval to 3D space, with tangent vectors and planar curves lying in a plane. 2) The length of a curve is defined using partitions and integrals, with the length invariant under isometries. 3) Diffeomorphisms and reparameterizations, which allow changing the parametrization of a curve while preserving properties like length.

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Lewis Patten
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468 views3 pages

Differential Geometry Lecture Notes

Differential geometry studies curves and surfaces using calculus and linear algebra. The document defines key concepts in differential geometry including: 1) Differentiable curves as smooth maps from an interval to 3D space, with tangent vectors and planar curves lying in a plane. 2) The length of a curve is defined using partitions and integrals, with the length invariant under isometries. 3) Diffeomorphisms and reparameterizations, which allow changing the parametrization of a curve while preserving properties like length.

Uploaded by

Lewis Patten
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Differential Geometry

Lewis Patten

August 18, 2019

”If people do not believe that mathematics is


simple, it is only because they do not realize how
complicated life is.”

John von Neumann

These notes are based of the series of lectures on Differential Geometry given by Claudio Arezzo. Recordings on the
Lectures can be found at: [Add link]

1 Lecture 1
1.1 Curves
Definition 1.1 (Differentiable Curve, Tangent Vector, Planar Curve). 1) A Differentiable Curve (assume C ∞ un-
3
less otherwise specified) is a map α : I → R where I = (a, b) ⊆ R. We may write such a map in terms of it’s
coordinate functions, α(t) = (x(t), y(t), z(t)) where x, y, z are C ∞ .
2) The vector α0 (t) = (x0 (t), y 0 (t), z(t)) is called the tangent vector of α at α(t).
3) α is called planar if there exists a plane P ⊂ R3 st. α(I) ⊂ P . This means that α(t) = (x(t), y(t)) upto a change
of coordinates.
Remark 1.1. α need not be injective, hence curves may be self intersecting
Example 1.1. Consider the curve
α : R → R2 st. α = (t3 − 4t, t2 − 4) (1)
Notice that for t1 = 2, t2 = 2 then α(t1 ) = α(t2 ) = (0, 0).

Figure 1: Node

Remark 1.2. α(I) could have corners, even if it’s coordinate functions are smooth.
Example 1.2. Consider:
α : R → R2 st. α(t) = (t2 , t3 ), (2)
2/3
Notice that then α(I) is the graph of the function y = x , a function which has a notable cusp at the origin

1
Figure 2: Cusp

Remark 1.3. Even if α is injective, it needn’t be the case that α(I) is homeomorphic to I
Example 1.3. Consider:
3t 3t2
α : (−1, ∞) → R2 st. α(t) = ( , ) (3)
1 = t 1 + t3
3

Notice that the topology open set around the origin is not of a kind found in an interval. [ADD DIAGRAM OF
FOLIUM OF DESCARTES]
Example 1.4 (Essential Curves). 1) Lines:

α(t) = tv + v0 , v, v0 ∈ R3 , t ∈ R (4)

[ADD DIAGRAM OF LINE]


2) Circles:
 t  t 
α(t) = c + r cos , sin , c ∈ R2 , r > 0, t ∈ R (5)
r r
[ADD DIAGRAM OF CIRCLE]
3) Helices:
  t   t  bt 
α(t) = a cos √ , a sin √ ,√ , a, b ∈ R∗ (6)
a2 + b2 a2 + b2 a2 + b2

Figure 3: Helix

2
1.2 Length
Given α : I → R3 , [a, b] ⊂ I. What is L(α([a, b]))?
We are going to need a little bit of machinery to find a good definition of length.
ADD DIAGRAM PARTITIONED CURVE
Definition 1.2 (Partition). A partition P of [a, b] is defined:

P = {t0 = a < t1 < ... < tn = b} (7)

Definition 1.3 (Partitioned Length). The length of a curve α subject to a partition P is defined:
m
X
Lba (α, P ) = |α(ti ) − α(ti−1 )|(ti − ti−1 ) (8)
i=1

Definition 1.4 (Norm of a Partition). We define the norm of a partition as follows:

|P | = max |ti − ti−1 | (9)


i∈J1,nK

Theorem 1.1. Given α : I → R3 , [a, b] ⊂ I and P be a partition of [a, b]. Then:


 Z b 
(∀ε > 0)(∃δ > 0) |P | < δ ⇒ Lba (α, P ) − |α0 (t)|dt < ε (10)

a

Proof. This is a proof of theorem 1

Definition 1.5 (Length). Given α : I → R3 , [a, b] ⊂ I. Then we define the length of α([a, b]):
Z b
L(α([a, b])) = |α0 (t)|dt (11)
a

Remark 1.4. It should be noted that as our definition of length is essentially the limit of the sum of many line
segments it is invariant under isometries.
Example 1.5.
Exercise 1.1. This exercise shows that we need a method of choosing a canonical parametrization for a curve

1.3 Diffeomorphism an Reparametrization


Definition 1.6 (Diffeomorphism and Reparameterization).
Proposition 1.1.

Proof.

2 Unrelated & Non Mathematical Coda

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