User:Harold/Charting RP^n

$\newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}} \newcommand{\RPn}{\R P^n} \newcommand{\Ztwo}{\mathbb{Z} / 2 \mathbb{Z}}$ This article contains information on possible charts for the real projective space of dimension $n$, denoted by $\RPn$. We shall first define $\RPn$. Let $S^n = \left\{ (x_0, \dotsc, x_n) \middle\vert \sum_{i = 0}^n x_i^2 = 1 \right\}$ be the $n$-sphere. Define a group action $\{-1, 1\} \cong \Ztwo$ on $S^n$ by mapping $(\epsilon, x) \mapsto \epsilon x$ with $\epsilon \in \{-1, 1\}$ and $x \in S^n$. This group action is "nice enough" so that the quotient space $S^n / \left( \Ztwo \right)$ is actually a real smooth compact Hausdorff manifold.

We now construct (the) (smooth) charts on $\RPn$. First we introduce some notation: if $x \in \RPn$, we write $x = [x_0 : \dotsc : x_n]$ if $(x_0, \dotsc, x_n)$ is a representative of the equivalence class $x$. Define the subsets $U_i \subset \RPn$ for $0 \leq i \leq n$ as $$U_i := \{ [x_0 : \dotsc : x_n] \in \RPn \vert x_i \neq 0 \}.$$ This is well-defined, because the choice of representative only depends on a sign or a non-zero scalar multiple (if the definition of lines in $\R^n$ is chosen; see Real projective space). Now introduce maps

$$\begin{align*} \phi_i: U_i & \to \R^n \\ [x_0 : \dotsc : x_{i - 1} : 1 : x_{i+1} : \dotsc : x_n] & \mapsto (x_0, \dotsc, \widehat{x_i}, \dotsc, x_n) \end{align*}$$

where $\widehat{x_i}$ denotes that the $i$-th coordinate is omitted. These maps are well-defined, and homeomorphisms if one takes the quotient topology on $\RPn$, and actually define a smooth structure on $\RPn$, as the transition maps $\phi_j \circ \phi_i^{-1}$ are diffeomorphisms (where defined).