Courses ¨

FOUNDATIONS OF DIFFERENTIAL GEOMETRY
(I.Yu.Tipunin)

  • Introduction
    • Manifold as a surface in Rn.
    • Tangent space, vector fields, interval, area and volume on an embedded surface
    • Non-relativistic and relativistic particles, strings and D-brans
  • Mappings of manifolds
    • Examples of mappings (embeddings, projections, diffeomorphisms)
    • Differential of mapping (behaviour of tangent vectors under mappings)
    • Vector fields as infinitesimal diffeomorphisms
    • Commutator of vector fields
    • Lie algebra of vector fields, conformal invariance of a string
  • Local coordinates
    • Mapping in local coordinate notation
    • Global and local properties
    • Concept of covariance
    • Transformation of vector fields under replacement of coordinates
    • Invariance of the commutator of vector fields
    • Independence of the physical content of theory from a reference system (Einstein principle of equivalence)
  • Tensor fields
    • Examples of tensor fields (metric tensor, Poisson and symplectic structures, complex structure)
    • Behaviour of tensor fields under mappings
    • Lie derivative concept, invariant vector fields, symmetry, Killing vectors
  • Covariance of the Poisson and symplecticity conditions
    • Symplectic manifolds
    • Darboux's theorem
    • Hamiltonoan systems, Hamilton equations, Hamiltonian fluxes, canonical transformations
  • Differential forms and operations over it
    • Exterior algebra of manifold
    • de Rham differential, closed and exact forms
    • Poincare lemma, Hodge conjugation
    • Maxwell equations in differential form notation
    • Self-duality equation
    • Superfields, supersymmetry, superspace
  • General concept of manifold
    • Atlas, maps
    • Global and local properties
    • de Rahm complex, cohomologies
    • Topological interpretation of a dot charge and Aharonov-Bohm effect
  • Lie algebras, Lie algebra of vector fields
    • Groups of transformations and its Lie algebras
    • Lie groups (abstract definition)
    • Lie groups as groups of transformations
    • Left- and right-invariant vector fields on group
    • Symmetries of physical systems (rotations, Lorentz and Poincare group, relativistic invariance, symmetry group of AdS space, conformal symmetry, internal symmetries)
  • Vector bundles
    • Bundle cross-sections
    • Structural group of vector bundle
    • Principal bundle associated with vector one
    • Tangent bundle and cotangent bundle, bundle of local reference points
    • Operations over bundles
    • Tensor fields as cross-sections of corresponding bundles
    • Trivial and non-trivial bundles
    • Parallelizable manifolds
  • Connection in vector (principal) bundle
    • Connection form and curvature
    • Maurer-Cartan equation, parallel transport
    • Yang-Mills fields
    • Gauge transformations
    • Physical applications (transition from a global internal symmetry to a gauge one)
    • Invariants of gauge transformations, Yang-Mills action
  • Integration on manifolds, volume form
    • Stoks theorem, densities and semidensities
    • Volume forms on Riemannian and symplectic manifolds, Liuville form
    • Actions for dynamic systems on general manifolds
    • Chern-Simon action and other topological models
  • Riemannian geometry, metric connection, curvature
    • GRT (action, Einstein equations, general coordinate invariance)
    • Tetradic Einstein-Cartan formalism, supergravitaty
  • Almost complex and complex structures
    • Niewenhuizen torsion tensor
    • Holomorphic and antiholomorphic functions
    • Tensor fields on complex manifolds
    • Dolboux differentials
    • Bi-complex
    • Kahlerian manifolds
    • Riemannian surfaces
    • Conformal transformations, conformal invariance
    • Kahlerian S -model
  • Elements of supergeometry
    • Supermanifolds and super Lie algebras
    • Antibracket and D -operator, Batalin-Vylkovsky algebra
    • Polyvectors and differential forms, Witten realization of the Batalin-Vylkovsky algebra

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