DIFFERENTIABLE MANIFOLDS

Second Exam (7 Fev 2017)

(do 5 out of 6)

1. Let M2×2 (R) be the vector space of real 2 × 2 matrices, and M1 ⊂ M2×2 (R) be the
subset of rank one matrices.
(a) Prove that M1 is a smooth submanifold of M2×2 (R); determine its dimension.
(b) Show that M1 is not compact. Is it connected?
∂ ∂
2. On R2 , with coordinates (x, y), consider the vector fields X = x ∂y − y ∂x and
∂ ∂
Y = x ∂x + y ∂y .
(a) Compute the Lie bracket [X, Y ].
(b) Determine the flows of each vector field (the map Φt : R2 → R2 , with dtd |t=0 Φt =
X and similarly for Y ) and conclude that X and Y are complete vector fields.
∂ ∂
3. (a) In R4 , with coordinates (x, y, u, v) consider the vector field X = cos u ∂x +sin v ∂y
and the differential form ω = x dx ∧ dy + u du ∧ dv. Compute dω, iX ω and LX ω.
(b) Let η = xdy − ydx ∈ Ω1 (R2 ). Prove that η is invariant under any linear trans-
formation A : R2 → R2 of determinant one, that is A∗ η = η for every A ∈ SL(2, R).

4. Let H be the (4 dimensional real vector) space of quaternions, with the R-basis
given by {1, i, j, k} and (non-commutative) multiplication defined by:
i2 = j 2 = k 2 = ijk = −1.
(and extended by R-linearity to H).
(a) Show that H \ {0} is a Lie group with quaternion multiplication as product.
(b) Let SU(2) = {A ∈ SL(2, C) : A∗ A = I2 } (A∗ = conjugate transpose of A;
I2 = 2 × 2 identity (complex) matrix). Prove that the map φ : H \ {0} → GL(2, C),
!
a + ib −c + di
φ(a + bi + cj + dk) := ,
c + di a − ib
restricted to the unit quaternions (those a + bi + cj + dk ∈ H verifying a2 + b2 +
c2 + d2 = 1) is a Lie group isomorphism onto SU(2).

5. Let M, N be oriented compact manifolds. Assume M has dimension n and bound-

ary ∂M, and that N has dimension n − 1 and no boundary.
(a) Let ω be a volume form on N. Prove that, for any smooth map f : ∂M → N,
´
∂M
f ∗ ω = 0.
(b) Show that any smooth map f : ∂M → N has zero degree.
(c) Conclude that there is no smooth map F : M → ∂M which restricts to the
identity map of ∂M, that is, F |∂M 6= id∂M .
 6. Indicate whether the following statements are true or false, justifying each answer.1
(a) Let M ⊂ Rn be a submanifold with boundary (and ∂M 6= ∅). Then, M equals
its closure as a subspace of Rn .
(b) Any two connected components of a disconnected Lie group are diffeomorphic.
(c) Every submanifold of an orientable manifold is itself orientable.
(d) Let p : E → M be a smooth vector bundle over a compact manifold M.
k k
Then, the induced maps on de Rham cohomology p∗ : HdR (M) → HdR (E) are
isomorphisms.

1We do not require manifolds to be connected.

Possible solution:

1. (a) A 2 × 2 matrix A has rank one if and only it is non-zero, and the columns (or rows) are linearly
dependent. Therefore:
( ! )
a b
M1 = A= | ad − bc = 0 and A 6= 0 ,
c d
and we can identify points of M1 as non-zero vectors (a, b, c, d) ∈ R4 satisfying ad − bc = 0. Con-
sidering the smooth function F (a, b, c, d) = ad − bc, we see that ∇F = 0 only if a = b = c = d = 0.
Thus, M1 = F −1 (0)\{0} consists only of regular points for F : R4 → R. Then, by the regular level
set theorem, M1 is a smooth manifold. Moreover, the same result proves that dim M1 = 4 − 1 = 3.
(b) To show that M1 is not compact, it suffices to prove that it is not bounded, so that there are
points (a, b, c, d) ∈ M1 ⊂ R4 outside every compact cube in R4 . Indeed, for R > 0 arbitrary, the
1 1
point (2R, 2R , 2R, 2R ) ∈ M1 misses the 4-cube CR := {(x1 , · · · , x4 ) | |xi | ≤ R}. Being a manifold,
M1 is connected if and only if it is path connected. So, we can show M1 is connected if it is
a union of 2 path connected spaces, with non-empty intersection (by concatenating paths based
at the intersection). Denote by v1 , v2 ∈ R2 the 2 column vectors of a matrix A ∈ M1 , and let
Ui := {A ∈ M1 | vi 6= 0}, i = 1, 2. Then it is easy to see that M1 = U1 ∪ U2 and that all U1 , U2
and U1 ∩ U2 are connected.

2. (a) For any smooth f ∈ C ∞ (R2 ), we compute:

  
∂ ∂ ∂f ∂f ∂f ∂f
XY (f ) = x −y x +y =x −y + second order derivatives of f
∂y ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y ∂x
  
∂ ∂ ∂f ∂f ∂f ∂f
Y X(f ) = x +y x −y =x −y + second order derivatives of f.
∂x ∂y ∂y ∂x ∂y ∂x
Making use of the fact that all second order derivatives cancel in (XY − Y X)(f ) (because it is a
first order operator) we conclude that [X, Y ] ≡ 0.
(b) For X, the flow is obtained by solving the first order differential equations

ẋ = −y
ẏ = x,

(with a given initial condition). This gives ẍ + x = 0 and similarly for y, which gives solutions of
the form: (x(t), y(t)) = (R cos(t + θ), R sin(t + θ)) for constants R > 0 and θ ∈ R. For Y the flow
is obtained by solving the first order differential equations

ẋ = x
ẏ = y,

whose general solution is (x(t), y(t)) = (c1 et , c2 et ) for constants c1 , c2 ∈ R. By direct inspection,
both flows of X and of Y are complete (defined for all t ∈ R).

3. (a) By definition,
dω = dx ∧ dx ∧ dy + du ∧ du ∧ dv = 0.
 For LX ω we use Cartan’s formula. In this case,LX ω = ιX dω + dιX ω = dιX ω, since dω = 0. For
ιX ω ∈ Ω1 (R4 ) we work component-wise:
∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
ιX ω( ) = ω(X, ) = ω(cos u + sin v , ) = sin v x dx ∧ dy( , ) = −x sin v
∂x ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂x ∂y ∂x
∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
ιX ω( ) = ω(X, ) = ω(cos u + sin v , ) = cos u x dx ∧ dy( , ) = x cos u
∂y ∂y ∂x ∂y ∂y ∂x ∂y
∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
ιX ω( ) = ω(X, ) = cos u ω( , ) + sin v ω( , ) = 0,
∂u ∂u ∂x ∂u ∂y ∂u
∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
ιX ω( ) = ω(X, ) = cos u ω( , ) + sin v ω( , ) = 0,
∂v ∂v ∂x ∂v ∂y ∂v
where, in the last 2 equalities, we used:
∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
ω( , ) = (x dx ∧ dy + u du ∧ dv) ( , ) = 0 + 0 = 0,
∂x ∂u ∂x ∂u
∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
and similarly to get ω( ∂y , ∂u ) = ω( ∂x , ∂v ) = ω( ∂y , ∂v ) = 0. So, ιX ω = (−x sin v)dx + (x cos u)dy
and finally LX ω = dιX ω! = x cos v(dv ∧ dx) + cos u(dx ∧ dy) − x sin u(du ∧ dy).
s t
(b) Let A = ∈ SL(2, R) which defines the map (denoted by the same letter) A :
u v
(x, y) 7→ (sx + ty, ux + vy) = (x̃, ỹ). In the variables (x̃, ỹ) the form η is x̃dỹ − ỹdx̃. Then

A∗ (x̃dỹ) = (sx + ty)d(ux + vy) = u(sx + ty)dx + v(sx + ty)dy

A∗ (ỹdx̃) = (ux + vy)d(sx + ty) = s(ux + vy)dx + t(ux + vy)dy,

so that

A∗ (x̃dỹ − ỹdx̃) = [tu − sv]ydx + [vs − tu]xdy = [sv − tu](xdy − ydx) = xdy − ydx,

as wanted, using st − uv = det A = 1.

4. (a) Since H is a (real) vector space of dimension 4, H\{0} is a 4-dimensional (smooth) manifold. To
show that the quaternion multiplication forms a group, it is useful to consider the parametrization
of part (b): the map
!
a + ib −c + id
φ(a + bi + cj + dk) =
c + id a − ib
is a group homomorphism since the product of 2 such matrices reproduces the quaternion multi-
plication. In fact:
!2 !2 !2
2 1 0 2 0 −1 2 0 i
φ(i ) = = φ(j ) = = φ(k ) = = I2 ,
0 −1 1 0 i 0
equal the identity 2 × 2 matrix I2 , and
! ! !
1 0 0 −1 0 i
φ(ijk) = = −I2
0 −1 1 0 i 0
as in the quaternion relations and the fact that φ(pq) = φ(p)φ(q), for all p, q ∈ H follows by
R-linearity. Thus, H \ {0} can be viewed as a subset of the vector space of complex 2 × 2 matrices,
!
s t
with the inherited matrix product. The image of φ (defined on H) are the matrices A =
u v
with s, t, u, v ∈ C such that s̄ = v and t̄ + u = 0, which is a real 4-dimensional subspace of C4 .
Moreover, the determinant of such matrix is det A = sv + tu = |s|2 + |u|2 = a2 + b2 + c2 + d2 ,
which means that φ(H \ {0}) ⊂ GL(2, C). Thus, the smoothness of the product and inverse in H
follow from the corresponding properties on GL(2, C). Note that indeed φ(q)−1 = φ(q −1 ) for all
 q ∈ H \ {0}.
(b) We saw that φ : H \ {0} → GL(2, C) is a Lie group homomorphism.! If q = a + bi + cj + dk is
s t
a unit quaternion then a2 + b2 + c2 + d2 = 1 then φ(q) = with s = a + bi, u = c + di,
u v
v = s̄ and t = −ū. Then
! ! !
2 2
s̄ ū s t |s| + |u| 0
φ(q)∗ φ(q) = = = I2 ,
t̄ v̄ u v 0 |t|2 + |v|2
so that φ(q) ∈ SU (2). The converse is shown in the same way: if φ(q) ∈ SU (2) then q is
a unit quaternion. Since φ is clearly injective, this sets up a bijective homomorphism between
unit quaternions and SU (2), and being also a group homomorphism, it is a Lie group isomorphism.

5. (a) Since ω is a volume form on N , it is a closed form of degree n − 1. Then, by Stokes’ theorem,
we have ˆ ˆ ˆ ˆ
f ω=
∗
df ω =
∗
f dω =
∗
f ∗ 0 = 0.
∂M M M M
(b) Let the boundary ∂M have volume form η. By definition, the degree of f is the integer d
such that f ∗ [ω] = d[η], where f ∗ : H n−1 (N ) → H n−1 (∂M ). Moreover, it is known that the
isomorphism H n−1 (∂M ) → R is given by integration (and similarly for N ). Since, by (a) the
integral of f ∗ ω vanishes, this shows that d = 0.
(c) Let N = ∂M and we can take η = ω as volume form. Suppose there was a smooth map
F : M → ∂M and let f = F |∂M . Then (a) and (b) applies to f , so that f has degree 0. There-
fore, f cannot be the indentity map, since the identity map has degree 1 (because in this case f ∗
is also the identity linear map from H n−1 (∂M ) to itself).

6. (a) False: Let M be the half-closed half-open interval M =]0, 1] ⊂ R. This is a one dimensional
submanifold of R, with boundary {1} ⊂ M , but its closure in R is the closed interval [0, 1].
(b) True: Let G = G0 ⊔ G̃ be the disjoint union of the connected component of the identity
e ∈ G0 with the remaining components (G̃ can be again a disconnected manifold), and let H be
one component of G̃. Fix a point h ∈ H and consider the map φ : G0 → H defined by φ(g) = gh.
Then, φ has an inverse ψ(g) = gh−1 , and it is clear that both φ and ψ are smooth maps, so they
are diffeomorphisms.
(c) False: The Möbius band (as a manifold without boundary, for instance) can be embedded as
a submanifold in R3 and it is not orientable, even though R3 is orientable.
(d) True: The total space E of a smooth vector bundle p : E → M has in fact the same homotopy
type of M itself. This can be shown by the following homotopy

H : [0, 1] × E → E
(t, (x, v)) 7→ (x, tv),

where we denoted by v a vector in Ex = p−1 (x) which is a vector space. Then H1 is the identity
on E (for t = 1) and H0 sends E to a copy of M inside E (called the zero section), consisting of
points of the form (x, 0). Moreover, this shows that the projection itself p : E → M is a homotopy
equivalence. Finally, we apply the result that homotopy equivalences provide isomorphisms in
cohomology (or equivalently, cohomology is a homotopy invariant).