You are here

A Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry, Vol. V

Michael Spivak
Publisher: 
Publish or Perish, Inc.
Publication Date: 
1999
Number of Pages: 
467
Format: 
Hardcover
Edition: 
3
Price: 
50.00
ISBN: 
0914098748
Category: 
Textbook
BLL Rating: 

The Basic Library List Committee strongly recommends this book for acquisition by undergraduate mathematics libraries.

[Reviewed by
Fernando Q. Gouvêa
, on
03/27/2006
]

10. And Now A Brief Message From Our Sponsor 
        1. FIRST ORDER PDE's
            Linear first order PDE's; characteristic curves; Cauchy problem for
            free initial curves. Quasi-linear first order PDE's; characteristic
            curves; Cauchy problem for free initial conditions; characteristic
            initial conditions. General first order PDE's; Monge cone; characteristic
            curves of a solution; characteristic strips; Cauchy problem for free
            initial data; characteristic initial data. First order PDE's in n variables.
        2. FREE INITIAL MANIFOLDS FOR HIGHER ORDER EQUATIONS
        3. SYSTEMS OF FIRST ORDER PDE'S
        4. THE CAUCHY-KOWALEWSKI THEOREM 
        5. CLASSIFICATION OF SECOND ORDER PDE'S
            Classification of semi-linear equations. Reduction to normal forms.
            Classification of general second order equations.
        6. THE PROTOTYPICAL PDE'S OF PHYSICS
            The wave equation; the heat equation; Laplace's equation. Elementary
            properties.
    7. HYPERBOLIC SYSTEMS IN TWO VARIABLES
    8. HYPERBOLIC SECOND ORDER EQUATIONS IN TWO VARIABLES
            First reduction of the problem. New system of characteristic equations.
            Characteristic initial data. Monge-Ampère equations.
    9. ELLIPTIC SOLUTIONS OF SECOND ORDER EQUATIONS IN TWO VARIABLES
   Addenda. Differential systems; the Cartan-Kähler Theorem. An elementary
    maximum principal.
11. Existence and Non-Existence of Isometric Imbeddings
        Non-imbeddability theorems; exteriorly orthogonal bilinear forms;
        index of nullity and index of relative nullity. The Darboux equation.
        Burstin-Janet-Cartan Theorem.
        Addendum. The embedding problem via differential systems.

12. Rigidity
        Rigidity in higher dimensions; type number. Bendings, warpings, and
        infinitesimal bendings. Vector-valued differential forms, the support
        function, and Minkowski's formulas. Infinitesimal rigidity of convex
        surfaces. Cohn-Vossen's Theorem. Minkowski's Theorem. Christoffel's
        Theorem. Other problems, solved and unsolved. Local problems; 
        the role of the asymptotic curves. Other classical results. E. E. Levi's
        Theorems and Schilt's Theorem. Surfaces in the 3-sphere and hyperbolic
        3 space. Rigidity for higher codimension.
        Addendum. Infinitesimal bendings of rotation surfaces.

13. The Generalized Gauss-Bonnet Theorem 
        Historical remarks.
         1. OPERATIONS ON BUNDLES
            Bundle maps and principal bundle maps; Whitney sums and induced
            bundles; the covering homotopy theorem.
         2. GRASSMANNIANS AND UNIVERSAL BUNDLES
         3. THE PFAFFIAN
         4. DEFINING THE EULER CLASS IN TERMS OF A CONNECTION
            The Euler class. The class C. The Gauss-Bonnet-Chern Theorem.
         5. THE CONCEPT OF CHARACTERISTIC CLASSES
         6. THE COHOMOLOGY OF HOMOGENEOUS SPACES
            The smooth structure of homogeneous spaces. Invariant forms.
         7. A SMATTERING OF CLASSICAL INVARIANT THEORY
            The Capelli identities. The first fundamental theorem of invariant theory
            for O(n) and SO(n).

         8. AN EASIER INVARIANCE PROBLEM 
         9. THE COHOMOLOGY OF THE ORIENTED GRASSMANNIANS
            Computation of the cohomology; Pontryagin classes. Describing the
            characteristic classes in terms of a connection.
        10. THE WEIL HOMOMORPHISM
        11. COMPLEX BUNDLES
            Hermitian inner products, the unitary group, and complex Grassmanians.
            The cohomology of the complex Grassmanians; Chern classes.
            Relations between the Chern classes and the Pontryagin and Euler classes.
        12. VALEDICTORY 
        Addenda. Invariant theory for the unitary group
        Recovering the differential forms; the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern Theorem
        for manifolds-with-boundary

  BIBLIOGRAPHY
        A. Other topics in Differential Geometry
        B. Books
        C. Journal articles