Differentiable Manifold - Differentiable Functions

Differentiable Functions

A real valued function f on an n-dimensional differentiable manifold M is called differentiable at a point pM if it is differentiable in any coordinate chart defined around p. In more precise terms, if (U, φ) is a chart where U is an open set in M containing p and φ: URn is the map defining the chart, then f is differentiable if and only if

is differentiable at φ(p). The definition of differentiability depends on the choice of chart at p; in general there will be many available charts. However, it follows from the chain rule applied to the transition functions between one chart and another that if f is differentiable in any particular chart at p, then it is differentiable in all charts at p. Analogous considerations apply to defining Ck functions, smooth functions, and analytic functions.

Read more about this topic:  Differentiable Manifold

Famous quotes containing the word functions:

    Let us stop being afraid. Of our own thoughts, our own minds. Of madness, our own or others’. Stop being afraid of the mind itself, its astonishing functions and fandangos, its complications and simplifications, the wonderful operation of its machinery—more wonderful because it is not machinery at all or predictable.
    Kate Millett (b. 1934)