nLab differential geometry of curves and surfaces

Skip the Navigation Links | Home Page | All Pages | Latest Revisions | Discuss this page |
Contents

Context

Differential geometry

synthetic differential geometry

Introductions

from point-set topology to differentiable manifolds

geometry of physics: coordinate systems, smooth spaces, manifolds, smooth homotopy types, supergeometry

Differentials

V-manifolds

smooth space

Tangency

The magic algebraic facts

Theorems

Axiomatics

cohesion

infinitesimal cohesion

tangent cohesion

differential cohesion

graded differential cohesion

singular cohesion

id ⊣ id ∨ ∨ fermionic ⇉ ⊣ ⇝ bosonic ⊥ ⊥ bosonic ⇝ ⊣ Rh rheonomic ∨ ∨ reduced ℜ ⊣ ℑ infinitesimal ⊥ ⊥ infinitesimal ℑ ⊣ & étale ∨ ∨ cohesive ʃ ⊣ ♭ discrete ⊥ ⊥ discrete ♭ ⊣ ♯ continuous ∨ ∨ ∅ ⊣ * \array{ && id &\dashv& id \\ && \vee && \vee \\ &\stackrel{fermionic}{}& \rightrightarrows &\dashv& \rightsquigarrow & \stackrel{bosonic}{} \\ && \bot && \bot \\ &\stackrel{bosonic}{} & \rightsquigarrow &\dashv& \mathrm{R}\!\!\mathrm{h} & \stackrel{rheonomic}{} \\ && \vee && \vee \\ &\stackrel{reduced}{} & \Re &\dashv& \Im & \stackrel{infinitesimal}{} \\ && \bot && \bot \\ &\stackrel{infinitesimal}{}& \Im &\dashv& \& & \stackrel{\text{étale}}{} \\ && \vee && \vee \\ &\stackrel{cohesive}{}& \esh &\dashv& \flat & \stackrel{discrete}{} \\ && \bot && \bot \\ &\stackrel{discrete}{}& \flat &\dashv& \sharp & \stackrel{continuous}{} \\ && \vee && \vee \\ && \emptyset &\dashv& \ast }

Models

Lie theory, ∞-Lie theory

differential equations, variational calculus

Chern-Weil theory, ∞-Chern-Weil theory

Cartan geometry (super, higher)

Contents

Idea

While modern differential geometry has become a very general subject, studying smooth manifolds in full generality, the origins of the subject (before general relativity came along) lie in the study of just curves and surfaces embedded in a Cartesian space/Euclidean space.

Expositions of this differential geometry of curves and surfaces tend to retain some of the historical ideosyncracies (such as the notion of jerk) which are rarely seen in more general texts on differential geometry.

(…)

References

Historical origins:

Modern accounts:

See also:

Last revised on May 18, 2024 at 13:05:06. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.

EditDiscussPrevious revisionChanges from previous revisionHistory (4 revisions) Cite Print Source