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Projective Differential Geometry
In mathematics, projective differential geometry is the study of differential geometry, from the point of view of properties of mathematical objects such as functions, diffeomorphisms, and submanifolds, that are invariant under transformations of the projective group. This is a mixture of the approaches from Riemannian geometry of studying invariances, and of the Erlangen program of characterizing geometries according to their group symmetries. The area was much studied by mathematicians from around 1890 for a generation (by J. G. Darboux, George Henri Halphen, Ernest Julius Wilczynski, E. Bompiani, G. Fubini, Eduard Čech, amongst others), without a comprehensive theory of differential invariants emerging. Élie Cartan formulated the idea of a general projective connection, as part of his method of moving frames; abstractly speaking, this is the level of generality at which the Erlangen program can be reconciled with differential geometry, while it also develops the oldest part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Élie Cartan
Élie Joseph Cartan (; 9 April 1869 – 6 May 1951) was an influential French mathematician who did fundamental work in the theory of Lie groups, differential systems (coordinate-free geometric formulation of PDEs), and differential geometry. He also made significant contributions to general relativity and indirectly to quantum mechanics. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century. His son Henri Cartan was an influential mathematician working in algebraic topology. Life Élie Cartan was born 9 April 1869 in the village of Dolomieu, Isère to Joseph Cartan (1837–1917) and Anne Cottaz (1841–1927). Joseph Cartan was the village blacksmith; Élie Cartan recalled that his childhood had passed under "blows of the anvil, which started every morning from dawn", and that "his mother, during those rare minutes when she was free from taking care of the children and the house, was working with a spinning-wheel". Élie had an elder sister Je ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Affine Geometry Of Curves
In the mathematical field of differential geometry, the affine geometry of curves is the study of curves in an affine space, and specifically the properties of such curves which are invariant under the special affine group \mbox(n,\mathbb) \ltimes \mathbb^n. In the classical Euclidean geometry of curves, the fundamental tool is the Frenet–Serret frame. In affine geometry, the Frenet–Serret frame is no longer well-defined, but it is possible to define another canonical moving frame along a curve which plays a similar decisive role. The theory was developed in the early 20th century, largely from the efforts of Wilhelm Blaschke and Jean Favard. The affine frame Let x(''t'') be a curve in \mathbb^n. Assume, as one does in the Euclidean case, that the first ''n'' derivatives of x(''t'') are linearly independent so that, in particular, x(''t'') does not lie in any lower-dimensional affine subspace of \mathbb^2. Then the curve parameter ''t'' can be normalized by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curve
In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line (geometry), line, but that does not have to be Linearity, straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point (geometry), point. This is the definition that appeared more than 2000 years ago in Euclid's Elements, Euclid's ''Elements'': "The [curved] line is […] the first species of quantity, which has only one dimension, namely length, without any width nor depth, and is nothing else than the flow or run of the point which […] will leave from its imaginary moving some vestige in length, exempt of any width." This definition of a curve has been formalized in modern mathematics as: ''A curve is the image (mathematics), image of an interval (mathematics), interval to a topological space by a continuous function''. In some contexts, the function that defines the curve is called a ''parametrization'', and the curve is a parametric curve. In this artic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osculation
In differential geometry, an osculating curve is a plane curve from a given family that has the highest possible order of contact with another curve. That is, if ''F'' is a family of smooth curves, ''C'' is a smooth curve (not in general belonging to ''F''), and ''p'' is a point on ''C'', then an osculating curve from ''F'' at ''p'' is a curve from ''F'' that passes through ''p'' and has as many of its derivatives at ''p'' equal to the derivatives of ''C'' as possible... The term derives from the Latinate root "osculate", to kiss, because the two curves contact one another in a more intimate way than simple tangency. Examples Examples of osculating curves of different orders include: *The tangent line to a curve ''C'' at a point ''p'', the osculating curve from the family of straight lines. The tangent line shares its first derivative (slope) with ''C'' and therefore has first-order contact with ''C''.. *The osculating circle to ''C'' at ''p'', the osculating curve from the famil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shiing-Shen Chern
Shiing-Shen Chern (; , ; October 28, 1911 – December 3, 2004) was a Chinese-American mathematician and poet. He made fundamental contributions to differential geometry and topology. He has been called the "father of modern differential geometry" and is widely regarded as a leader in geometry and one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century, winning numerous awards and recognition including the Wolf Prize and the inaugural Shaw Prize. In memory of Shiing-Shen Chern, the International Mathematical Union established the Chern Medal in 2010 to recognize "an individual whose accomplishments warrant the highest level of recognition for outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics". Chern worked at the Institute for Advanced Study (1943–45), spent about a decade at the University of Chicago (1949-1960), and then moved to University of California, Berkeley, where he co-founded the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in 1982 and was the institute's found ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Schwarzian Derivative
In mathematics, the Schwarzian derivative is an operator similar to the derivative which is invariant under Möbius transformations. Thus, it occurs in the theory of the complex projective line, and in particular, in the theory of modular forms and hypergeometric functions. It plays an important role in the theory of univalent functions, conformal mapping and Teichmüller spaces. It is named after the German mathematician Hermann Schwarz. Definition The Schwarzian derivative of a holomorphic function of one complex variable is defined by : (Sf)(z) = \left( \frac\right)' - \frac\left(\right)^2 = \frac-\frac\left(\right)^2. The same formula also defines the Schwarzian derivative of a function of one real variable. The alternative notation :\ = (Sf)(z) is frequently used. Properties The Schwarzian derivative of any Möbius transformation : g(z) = \frac is zero. Conversely, the Möbius transformations are the only functions with this property. Thus, the Schwarzian der ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Projective Line
In mathematics, a projective line is, roughly speaking, the extension of a usual line by a point called a ''point at infinity''. The statement and the proof of many theorems of geometry are simplified by the resultant elimination of special cases; for example, two distinct projective lines in a projective plane meet in exactly one point (there is no "parallel" case). There are many equivalent ways to formally define a projective line; one of the most common is to define a projective line over a field ''K'', commonly denoted P1(''K''), as the set of one-dimensional subspaces of a two-dimensional ''K''-vector space. This definition is a special instance of the general definition of a projective space. The projective line over the reals is a manifold; see real projective line for details. Homogeneous coordinates An arbitrary point in the projective line P1(''K'') may be represented by an equivalence class of ''homogeneous coordinates'', which take the form of a pair : _1 : x_2/mat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Method Of Moving Frames
In mathematics, a moving frame is a flexible generalization of the notion of an ordered basis of a vector space often used to study the extrinsic differential geometry of smooth manifolds embedded in a homogeneous space. Introduction In lay terms, a '' frame of reference'' is a system of measuring rods used by an observer to measure the surrounding space by providing coordinates. A moving frame is then a frame of reference which moves with the observer along a trajectory (a curve). The method of the moving frame, in this simple example, seeks to produce a "preferred" moving frame out of the kinematic properties of the observer. In a geometrical setting, this problem was solved in the mid 19th century by Jean Frédéric Frenet and Joseph Alfred Serret. The Frenet–Serret frame is a moving frame defined on a curve which can be constructed purely from the velocity and acceleration of the curve. The Frenet–Serret frame plays a key role in the differential geometry of cur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Projective Connection
In differential geometry, a projective connection is a type of Cartan connection on a differentiable manifold. The structure of a projective connection is modeled on the geometry of projective space, rather than the affine space corresponding to an affine connection. Much like affine connections, projective connections also define geodesics. However, these geodesics are not affinely parametrized. Rather they are projectively parametrized, meaning that their preferred class of parameterizations is acted upon by the group of fractional linear transformations. Like an affine connection, projective connections have associated torsion and curvature. Projective space as the model geometry The first step in defining any Cartan connection is to consider the flat case: in which the connection corresponds to the Maurer-Cartan form on a homogeneous space. In the projective setting, the underlying manifold M of the homogeneous space is the projective space RPn which we shall represent by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Differential Invariant
In mathematics, a differential invariant is an invariant for the action of a Lie group on a space that involves the derivatives of graphs of functions in the space. Differential invariants are fundamental in projective differential geometry, and the curvature is often studied from this point of view. Differential invariants were introduced in special cases by Sophus Lie in the early 1880s and studied by Georges Henri Halphen at the same time. was the first general work on differential invariants, and established the relationship between differential invariants, invariant differential equations, and invariant differential operators. Differential invariants are contrasted with geometric invariants. Whereas differential invariants can involve a distinguished choice of independent variables (or a parameterization), geometric invariants do not. Élie Cartan's method of moving frames is a refinement that, while less general than Lie's methods of differential invariants, always yields in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Differential Geometry
Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that studies the geometry of smooth shapes and smooth spaces, otherwise known as smooth manifolds. It uses the techniques of differential calculus, integral calculus, linear algebra and multilinear algebra. The field has its origins in the study of spherical geometry as far back as antiquity. It also relates to astronomy, the geodesy of the Earth, and later the study of hyperbolic geometry by Lobachevsky. The simplest examples of smooth spaces are the plane and space curves and surfaces in the three-dimensional Euclidean space, and the study of these shapes formed the basis for development of modern differential geometry during the 18th and 19th centuries. Since the late 19th century, differential geometry has grown into a field concerned more generally with geometric structures on differentiable manifolds. A geometric structure is one which defines some notion of size, distance, shape, volume, or other rigidifying structu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
