Riemannian submersion
In differential geometry, a branch of mathematics, a Riemannian submersion is a submersion from one Riemannian manifold to another that respects the metrics, meaning that it is an orthogonal projection on tangent spaces.
Formal definition[]
Let (M, g) and (N, h) be two Riemannian manifolds and a (surjective) submersion, i.e., a fibered manifold. The horizontal distribution is a sub-bundle of the tangent bundle of which depends both on the projection and on the metric .
Then, f is called a Riemannian submersion if and only if the isomorphism is an isometry.[1]
Examples[]
An example of a Riemannian submersion arises when a Lie group acts isometrically, freely and properly on a Riemannian manifold . The projection to the quotient space equipped with the quotient metric is a Riemannian submersion. For example, component-wise multiplication on by the group of unit complex numbers yields the Hopf fibration.
Properties[]
The sectional curvature of the target space of a Riemannian submersion can be calculated from the curvature of the total space by O'Neill's formula, named for Barrett O'Neill:
where are orthonormal vector fields on , their horizontal lifts to , is the Lie bracket of vector fields and is the projection of the vector field to the .
In particular the lower bound for the sectional curvature of is at least as big as the lower bound for the sectional curvature of .
Generalizations and variations[]
- Fiber bundle
- Submetry
See also[]
Notes[]
- ^ Gilkey, Peter B.; Leahy, John V.; Park, Jeonghyeong (1998), Spinors, Spectral Geometry, and Riemannian Submersions, Global Analysis Research Center, Seoul National University, pp. 4–5
References[]
- Gilkey, Peter B.; Leahy, John V.; Park, Jeonghyeong (1998), Spinors, Spectral Geometry, and Riemannian Submersions, Global Analysis Research Center, Seoul National University.
- Barrett O'Neill. The fundamental equations of a submersion. Michigan Math. J. 13 (1966), 459–469. doi:10.1307/mmj/1028999604
- Riemannian geometry
- Maps of manifolds