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Current (Mathematics) - Wikipedia
Current (Mathematics) - Wikipedia
(mathematics)
Definition
Let denote the space of smooth m-forms with compact support on a smooth manifold
A current is a linear functional on which is continuous in the sense of distributions.
Thus a linear functional
whenever
The linear subspace of consisting of currents with support (in the sense above) that is
a compact subset of is denoted
Homological theory
If the boundary ∂M of M is rectifiable, then it too defines a current by integration, and by virtue of
Stokes' theorem one has:
This relates the exterior derivative d with the boundary operator ∂ on the homology of M.
Certain subclasses of currents which are closed under can be used instead of all currents to
create a homology theory, which can satisfy the Eilenberg–Steenrod axioms in certain cases. A
classical example is the subclass of integral currents on Lipschitz neighborhood retracts.
It is possible to define several norms on subspaces of the space of all currents. One such norm
is the mass norm. If is an m-form, then define its comass by
So if is a simple m-form, then its mass norm is the usual L∞-norm of its coefficient. The mass
of a current is then defined as
The mass of a current represents the weighted area of the generalized surface. A current such
that M(T) < ∞ is representable by integration of a regular Borel measure by a version of the
Riesz representation theorem. This is the starting point of homological integration.
Two currents are close in the mass norm if they coincide away from a small part. On the other
hand, they are close in the flat norm if they coincide up to a small deformation.
Examples
Recall that
Let (x, y, z) be the coordinates in Then the following defines a 2-current (one of many):
See also
Georges de Rham
Herbert Federer
Differential geometry
Varifold
Notes
References
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