Differential Geometry
M.Sc in Mathematics - II year[4th Sem]
mair Tanveer
U
RH 210198267006
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Differential Geometry
Differential geometry, branch of mathematics that studies the geometry of curves,
surfaces, and manifolds (the higher-dimensional analogs of surfaces). The discipline
owesitsnametoitsuseofideasandtechniquesfromdifferentialcalculus,thoughthe
modern subject often uses algebraic and purely geometric techniques instead.
Although basic definitions, notations, and analytic descriptions vary widely, the
followinggeometricquestionsprevail:Howdoesonemeasurethecurvatureofacurve
within asurface(intrinsic)versuswithintheencompassingspace(extrinsic)?Howcan
the curvature of a surface bemeasured?Whatistheshortestpathwithinasurface
between two pointsonthesurface?Howistheshortestpathonasurfacerelatedto
the concept of a straight line?
While curves had been studied since antiquity, the discovery of calculus in the 17th
century opened up the study of more complicated plane curves—such as those
producedbytheFrenchmathematicianRenéDescartes(1596–1650)withhis“compass”
(see History of geometry: Cartesian geometry). In particular, integralcalculusledto
generalsolutionsoftheancientproblemsoffindingthearclengthofplanecurvesand
theareaofplanefigures.Thisinturnopenedthestagetotheinvestigationofcurves
and surfaces in space—an investigation that was the start of differential geometry.
Some of the fundamental ideas of differential geometry can be illustrated by the
strake, a spiralling strip often designed by engineers to give structural support to
large metal cylinders such as smokestacks. A strake can be formed by cutting an
annular strip (the region between two concentric circles) from a flat sheet of steel
and then bending it into a helix that spiralsaroundthecylinder,asillustratedinthe
figure. What should the radius r of the annulus be to produce the best fit?
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Differential geometry supplies the solution to this problem by defining a precise
measurementforthecurvatureofacurve;thenrcanbeadjusteduntilthecurvature
of the inside edge of the annulus matches the curvature of the helix.
An important question remains: Can the annular strip be bent, without stretching,so
that it forms a strake around the cylinder? In particular, this means that distances
measured along the surface (intrinsic) are unchanged. Two surfaces are said to be
isometricifonecanbebent(ortransformed)intotheotherwithoutchangingintrinsic
distances. (For example, because a sheet of paper can be rolled into a tube without
stretching, the sheet and tube are “locally” isometric—only locally because new, and
possiblyshorter,routesarecreatedbyconnectingthetwoedgesofthepaper.)Thus,
the second question becomes: Are the annular strip and the strake isometric? To
answer this and similar questions, differential geometry developed the notion of the
curvature of a surface.
Curvature of curves
Thecurvatureateachpointofalineisdefinedtobe1/r,whereristheradiusofthe
osculating, or “kissing,” circle that best approximates the line at the given point.
Thecurvatureateachpointofalineisdefinedtobe1/r,whereristheradiusofthe
osculating, or “kissing,” circle that best approximates the line at the given point.
Although mathematicians from antiquity had described some curves as curving more
than others and straight lines as not curvingatall,itwastheGermanmathematician
GottfriedLeibnizwho,in1686,firstdefinedthecurvatureofacurveateachpointin
termsofthecirclethatbestapproximatesthecurveatthatpoint.Leibniznamedhis
approximating circle (as shown in the figure) the osculating circle, from the Latin
osculare(“tokiss”).Hethendefinedthecurvatureofthecurve(andthecircle)as1/r,
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where r istheradiusoftheosculatingcircle.Asacurvebecomesstraighter,acircle
with a larger radius must be used to approximate it, and so the resulting curvature
decreases. In the limit, a straight line is said to be equivalent to a circle of infinite
radius and its curvature defined as zero everywhere. The only curves in ordinary
Euclidean space with constant curvature are straight lines, circles, and helices. In
practice, curvature is found with a formula that gives the rate of change, or
derivative,ofthetangenttothecurveasonemovesalongthecurve.Thisformulawas
discovered by Isaac Newton and Leibniz for plane curves in the 17thcenturyandby
theSwissmathematicianLeonhardEulerforcurvesinspaceinthe18thcentury.(Note
that the derivative of the tangent to the curve is not the same as the second
derivativestudiedincalculus,whichistherateofchangeofthetangenttothecurve
as one moves along the x-axis.)
Withthesedefinitionsinplace,itisnowpossibletocomputetheidealinnerradiusrof
the annular strip that goes into making the strake shown in the figure. The annular
strip’s innercurvature1/rmustequalthecurvatureofthehelixonthecylinder.IfR
is the radius of the cylinder and H is the height of one turn of the helix, then the
curvature of thehelixis4π2R/[H2+(2πR)2].Forexample,ifR=1metreandH=10
metres, then r = 3.533 metres.
Curvature of surfaces
The normal, or perpendicular, at each point of a surface defines the corresponding
tangent plane, and vice versa.
The normal, or perpendicular, at each point of a surface defines the corresponding
tangent plane, and vice versa.
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To measure the curvature of a surface at a point, Euler, in 1760, looked at cross
sections of the surface made by planes that contain the line perpendicular (or
“normal”)tothesurfaceatthepoint(seefigure).Eulercalledthecurvaturesofthese
cross sections the normal curvatures of the surface at the point. For example, on a
right cylinder of radiusr,theverticalcrosssectionsarestraightlinesandthushave
zero curvature; the horizontal cross sections are circles, which have curvature 1/r.
The normal curvatures at a point on a surface are generally different in different
directions. The maximum and minimum normal curvatures at a point on a surface are
called the principal (normal) curvatures, and the directions in which these normal
curvatures occur are called the principal directions. Euler proved that for most
surfaces where the normal curvatures are not constant (for example, the cylinder),
these principal directions are perpendicular to eachother.(Notethatonasphereall
the normal curvatures are the same and thus all are principal curvatures.) These
principal normal curvatures are a measure of how “curvy” the surface is.
The theory of surfaces and principal normalcurvatureswasextensivelydevelopedby
French geometers led by Gaspard Monge (1746–1818). It was in an 1827 paper,
however, that the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss made the big
breakthrough that alloweddifferentialgeometrytoanswerthequestionraisedabove
of whether the annular strip is isometric to the strake. TheGaussiancurvatureofa
surfaceatapointisdefinedastheproductofthetwoprincipalnormalcurvatures;it
issaidtobepositiveiftheprincipalnormalcurvaturescurveinthesamedirectionand
negative if they curve in opposite directions. Normal curvatures for a plane surface
areallzero,andthustheGaussiancurvatureofaplaneiszero.Foracylinderofradius
r, the minimum normal curvature is zero (along the vertical straight lines), and the
maximum is 1/r (along the horizontal circles). Thus, the Gaussian curvature of a
cylinder is also zero.
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Ifthecylinderiscutalongoneoftheverticalstraightlines,theresultingsurfacecan
beflattened(withoutstretching)ontoarectangle.Indifferentialgeometry,itissaid
that the plane and cylinder are locally isometric. These are special cases of two
important theorems:
Gauss’s“RemarkableTheorem”(1827).Iftwosmoothsurfacesareisometric,thenthe
two surfaces have the same Gaussian curvature at corresponding points. (Athough
defined extrinsically, Gaussian curvature is an intrinsic notion.)
Minding’stheorem(1839).Twosmooth(“cornerless”)surfaceswiththesameconstant
Gaussian curvature are locally isometric.
As corollaries to these theorems:
A surface with constant positive Gaussian curvature c has locally the same intrinsic
geometryasasphereofradiusSquarerootof√1/c.(Thisisbecauseasphereofradius
r has Gaussian curvature 1/r2).
A surface with constant zero Gaussian curvature has locally the same intrinsic
geometry as a plane. (Such surfaces are called developable).
A surface with constant negative Gaussian curvature c has locally the same intrinsic
geometry as a hyperbolic plane. (See non-Euclidean geometry.)
TheGaussiancurvatureofanannularstrip(beingintheplane)isconstantlyzero.Soto
answer whether or not the annularstripisisometrictothestrake,oneneedsonlyto
checkwhetherastrakehasconstantzeroGaussiancurvature.TheGaussiancurvature
of a strake is actually negative, hencetheannularstripmustbestretched—although
this can be minimized by narrowing the shapes.
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Shortest paths on a surface
From an outside, or extrinsic, perspective, no curve on a sphere is straight.
Nevertheless,thegreatcirclesareintrinsicallystraight—anantcrawlingalongagreat
circle does not turn or curve with respect to the surface. About 1830 the Estonian
mathematicianFerdinandMindingdefinedacurveonasurfacetobeageodesicifitis
intrinsically straight—that is, if there is no identifiable curvature from within the
surface. A major task of differential geometry is to determine the geodesics on a
surface. The great circles are the geodesics on a sphere.
A great circle arc that is longer than a half circle is intrinsically straight on the
sphere, but itisnottheshortestdistancebetweenitsendpoints.Ontheotherhand,
the shortest path in a surface is not always straight, as shown in the figure. An
important theorem is:
On a surface which is complete (every geodesic can be extended indefinitely) and
smooth, every shortest curve is intrinsically straight and every intrinsically straight
curve is the shortest curve between nearby points.
John Henry Constantine Whitehead
Subjects Of Study: homotopy
Henry Whitehead, in full John Henry Constantine Whitehead, (born November 11,
1904, Madras, India—died May 8, 1960, Princeton, N.J., U.S.), British mathematician
who greatly influenced the development of homotopy.
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AsaCommonwealthresearchfellow(1929–32),WhiteheadstudiedundertheAmerican
mathematician Oswald Veblen at Princeton University and gained his Ph.D. in 1932.
Their collaborative publications include The Foundations of Differential Geometry
(1932), now regarded as a classic.
Numbers and Mathematics
Whitehead became tutorial fellow at Balliol College, University of Oxford, in 1933,
and,afterservingwithvariousgovernmentdepartmentsduringWorldWarII,in1947
he became Waynflete professor of pure mathematics at Oxford.
AfterreturningtoEngland,Whiteheadcontinuedtoworkindifferentialgeometryand
his paper “On the Covering of a Complete Space by the Geodesics Through a Point”
(1935), marks a turning point in the study of the subject. He always retained his
interest in geometry but from 1941 was primarily concerned ontopology.Initiallyhis
focus was on the strictly combinatorial type of topology but later hemovedtowards
algebraictopology.Hemadesubstantialcontributionstohomotopytheory(thetheory
of a special kind of mapping of topological spaces). He set upaschooloftopologyat
Oxford. He died while on sabbatical leave at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Joseph-Louis-François Bertrand
Subjects Of Study: curve differential equation probability surface
thermodynamics
Joseph Bertrand, in fullJoseph-Louis-FrançoisBertrand,(bornMarch11,1822,Paris,
France—died April 5, 1900, Paris), French mathematician and educator remembered
for his elegant applications of differential equations to analytical mechanics,
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particularly in thermodynamics, and for his work on statistical probability and the
theory of curves and surfaces.
The nephew of the mathematician Jean-Marie-Constant Duhamel, Bertrand was also
related by marriage to the mathematicians PaulAppell,ÉmileBorel,CharlesHermite,
and Émile Picard. Bertrand graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1839 with a
doctorate in thermodynamics and continued his work in engineering at the École
NationaleSupérieuredesMineswhileteachingattheCollègeSaint-Louis.Helateralso
taught at the École Normale Supérieure, the École Polytechnique, andtheCollègede
France.
Numbers and Mathematics
In 1889Bertrand’sresearchoninfinitesimalanalysisledtohisimportantwork,Calcul
des probabilités (“Calculus of Probabilities”), which introduced the problem known as
Bertrand’sparadoxconcerningtheprobabilitythata“randomchord”ofacirclewillbe
shorter than its radius. His name is also associated with Bertrand curves in
differential geometry.
The author of several mathematical textbooks, Bertrand also wrote the books
D’Alembert (1889) and Pascal (1891), as well as a number of biographical essays. He
was the editor of Journal des Savants (1865–1900) and contributed many popular
articles on the history of science.In1856hewaselectedtotheFrenchAcademyof
Sciences,whereassécrétairepérpetuel,apositionheheldfrom1874untilhisdeath,
hisinfluenceinpromotingmathematicsandmathematicianswasstronglyfelt.In1884
he became a member of the literary French Academy.
