Gerard Walschap - Böcker

This text is an elementary introduction to differential geometry. Although it was written for a graduate-level audience, the only requisite is a solid back­ ground in calculus, linear algebra, and basic point-set topology. The first chapter covers the fundamentals of differentiable manifolds that are the bread and butter of differential geometry. All the usual topics are cov­ ered, culminating in Stokes' theorem together with some applications. The stu­ dents' first contact with the subject can be overwhelming because of the wealth of abstract definitions involved, so examples have been stressed throughout. One concept, for instance, that students often find confusing is the definition of tangent vectors. They are first told that these are derivations on certain equiv­ alence classes of functions, but later that the tangent space of ffi.n is "the same" n as ffi. . We have tried to keep these spaces separate and to carefully explain how a vector space E is canonically isomorphic to its tangent space at a point. This subtle distinction becomes essential when later discussing the vertical bundle of a given vector bundle.

This text is an elementary introduction to differential geometry. Although it was written for a graduate-level audience, the only requisite is a solid back­ ground in calculus, linear algebra, and basic point-set topology. The first chapter covers the fundamentals of differentiable manifolds that are the bread and butter of differential geometry. All the usual topics are cov­ ered, culminating in Stokes' theorem together with some applications. The stu­ dents' first contact with the subject can be overwhelming because of the wealth of abstract definitions involved, so examples have been stressed throughout. One concept, for instance, that students often find confusing is the definition of tangent vectors. They are first told that these are derivations on certain equiv­ alence classes of functions, but later that the tangent space of ffi.n is "the same" n as ffi. . We have tried to keep these spaces separate and to carefully explain how a vector space E is canonically isomorphic to its tangent space at a point. This subtle distinction becomes essential when later discussing the vertical bundle of a given vector bundle.

This book offers an introduction to differential geometry for the non-specialist. It includes most of the required material from multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and basic analysis. An intuitive approach and a minimum of prerequisites make it a valuable companion for students of mathematics and physics.The main focus is on manifolds in Euclidean space and the metric properties they inherit from it. Among the topics discussed are curvature and how it affects the shape of space, and the generalization of the fundamental theorem of calculus known as Stokes' theorem.