Canonical Vector Field On Tangent Bundle
On every tangent bundle TM one can define a canonical vector field . If (x, v) are local coordinates for TM, the vector field has the expression
Alternatively, consider to be the scalar multiplication function . The derivative of this function with respect to the variable at time is a function, which is an alternative description of the canonical vector field.
The existence of such a vector field on TM can be compared with the existence of a canonical 1-form on the cotangent bundle. Sometimes V is also called the Liouville vector field, or radial vector field. Using V one can characterize the tangent bundle. Essentially, V can be characterized using 4 axioms, and if a manifold has a vector field satisfying these axioms, then the manifold is a tangent bundle and the vector field is the canonical vector field on it. See for example, De León et al.
Read more about this topic: Tangent Bundle
Famous quotes containing the words canonical, field and/or bundle:
“If God bestowed immortality on every man then when he made him, and he made many to whom he never purposed to give his saving grace, what did his Lordship think that God gave any man immortality with purpose only to make him capable of immortal torments? It is a hard saying, and I think cannot piously be believed. I am sure it can never be proved by the canonical Scripture.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“He stung me first and stung me afterward.
He rolled me off the field head over heels
And would not listen to my explanations.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
““There is Lowell, who’s striving Parnassus to climb
With a whole bale of isms tied together with rhyme,
He might get on alone, spite of brambles and boulders,
But he can’t with that bundle he has on his shoulders,
The top of the hill he will ne’er come nigh reaching
Till he learns the distinction ‘twixt singing and preaching;”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)