Tangent space

From Maths
Revision as of 22:27, 12 April 2015 by Alec (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Types of tangent space

Name Symbol Definition
Geometric Tangent Space [ilmath]G_p(\mathbb{R}^n)[/ilmath][1] The set of tangents to a point in [ilmath]\mathbb{R}^n[/ilmath]

[math]G_p(\mathbb{R}^n)=\{(p,v)|v\in\mathbb{R}^n\}[/math] - the set of all arrows at [ilmath]p[/ilmath]

Tangent space (to [ilmath]\mathbb{R}^n[/ilmath]) [ilmath]T_p(\mathbb{R}^n)[/ilmath] The set of all derivations at [ilmath]p[/ilmath]]]

[math]\omega\in T_p(\mathbb{R}^n)\iff \omega:C^\infty(\mathbb{R}^n)\rightarrow\mathbb{R} [/math] is a derivation

([ilmath]T_p(M)[/ilmath] here)
Tangent space (in terms of germs) [ilmath]\mathcal{D}_p(M)[/ilmath] The set of all derivations of [ilmath]C^\infty_p(M)[/ilmath] - the set of all germs of smooth functions at a point, that is:

[math]\omega\in \mathcal{D}_p(M)\iff\omega:C^\infty_p(M)\rightarrow\mathbb{R}[/math] is a derivation

OLD PAGE

I prefer to denote the tangent space (of a set [ilmath]A[/ilmath] at a point [ilmath]p[/ilmath]) by [ilmath]T_p(A)[/ilmath] - as this involves the letter T for tangent however one author[2] uses [ilmath]T_p(A)[/ilmath] as Set of all derivations at a point - the two are indeed isomorphic but as readers will know - I do not see this as an excuse.

What is defined here may also be called the Geometric tangent space

See also Motivation for tangent space

Definition

It is the set of arrows at a point, the set of all directions essentially. As the reader knows, a vector is usually just a direction, we keep track of tangent vectors and know them to be "tangent vectors at t" or something similar. A tangent vector is actually a point with an associated direction.

Euclidean (motivating) definition

We define [math]T_p(\mathbb{R}^n)=\left\{(p,v)|v\in\mathbb{R}^n\right\}[/math]

Generally then we may say: [math]T_p(A)=\left\{(p,v)|v\in A\right\}[/math]

Notation

A tangent vector (often [ilmath]v[/ilmath] is used) shall be left as just [ilmath]v[/ilmath] if the point to which it is a tangent to is implicit (ie "[ilmath]v[/ilmath] is a tangent at [ilmath]p[/ilmath]")

Rather than writing [ilmath](p,v)[/ilmath] we may write:

  • [ilmath]v[/ilmath] (if it is implicitly understood that this is a tangent to the point [ilmath]p[/ilmath])
  • [ilmath]v_a[/ilmath]
  • [math]v|_a[/math]

Why ordered pairs

Ordered pairs are used because now the tangent space at two distinct points are disjoint sets, that is [math]\alpha\ne\beta\implies T_\alpha(A)\cap T_\beta(A)=\emptyset[/math]

Vector space

[math]T_p(A)[/math] is a vector space when equipped with the following definitions:

  • [ilmath]v_a+w_a=(v+w)_a[/ilmath]
  • [ilmath]c(v_a)=(cv)_a[/ilmath]

It is easily seen that the basis for this is the standard basis [math]\{e_1|_p,\cdots, e_n|_p\}[/math] and that the tangent space [ilmath]T_p(A)[/ilmath] is basically just a copy of [ilmath]A[/ilmath]

See also

References

  1. Alec's notation - John M Lee uses [ilmath]\mathbb{R}^n_p[/ilmath] and it is distinct from [ilmath]T_p(\mathbb{R}^n)[/ilmath]
  2. John M. Lee - Introduction to Smooth Manifolds - second edition