glossary of riemannian and metric geometry

This is a glossary of some terms used in Riemannian geometry and metric geometry — it doesn't cover the terminology of differential topology. The following articles may also be useful. These either contain specialised vocabulary or provide more detailed expositions of the definitions given below.

A

Alexandrov space a generalization of Riemannian manifolds with upper, lower or integral curvature bounds (the last one works only in dimension 2) Almost flat manifold Arc-wise isometry the same as path isometry.

B

Baricenter, see center of mass. bi-Lipschitz map. A map

f:X\to Y

is called bi-Lipschitz if there are positive constants c and C such that for any x and y in X

c|xy|_X\le|f(x)f(y)|_Y\le C|xy|_X

Busemann function given a ray, γ : [0, ∞)→X, the Busemann function is defined by

B_\gamma(p)=\lim_{t\to\infty}(|\gamma(t)p|-t)

C

Center of mass. A point q∈M is called the center of mass of the points

p_1,p_2,..,p_k

if it is a point of global minimum of the function

f(x)=\sum_i |p_ix|^2

Such a point is unique if all distances

|p_ip_j|

are less than radius of convexity. Complete space Completion Conformal map Conformally flat a M is conformally flat if it is locally conformally equivalent to a Euclidean space, for example standard sphere is conformally flat. Conjugate point two points p and q on a geodesic

\gamma

are called conjugate if there is a Jacobi field on

\gamma

which has a zero at p and q. Convex function. A function f on a Riemannian manifold is a convex if for any geodesic

\gamma

the function

f\circ\gamma

is convex. A function f is called

\lambda

-convex if for any geodesic

\gamma

with natural parameter

t

, the function

f\circ\gamma(t)-\lambda t^2

is convex. Convex A subset K of metric space M is called convex if for any two points in K there is a shortest path connecting them which lies entirely in K, see also totally convex. Covariant derivative

D

Diameter of a metric space is the supremum of distances between pairs of points. Dilation of a map between metric spaces is the infimum of numbers L such that the given map is L-Lipschitz.

E

Exponential map

F

Finsler metric First fundamental form for an embedding or immersion is the pullback of the metric tensor.

G

Geodesic Geodesic flow is a flow on a tangent bundle TM of a manifold M, generated by a vector field whose trajectories are of the form

(\gamma(t),\gamma'(t))

where

\gamma

is a geodesic. Gromov-Hausdorff convergence

H

Hadamard space is a complete simply connected space with nonpositive curvature. Horosphere a level set of Busemann function.

I

Injectivity radius at a point p of a Riemannian manifold is the largest radius for which the exponential map at p is a diffeomorphism. Injectivity radius of a Riemannian manifold is the infimum of Injectivity radii at all points. For complete manifolds, if the injectivity radius at p is a finite, say r, then either there is a geodesic of length 2r which starts and ends at p or there is a point q conjugate to p and on the distance r from p. For closed Riemannian manifold the injectivity radius is either half of minimal length of closed geodesic or minimal distance between conjugate points on a geodesic. Infranil manifold Given a simply connected nilpotent Lie group N acting on itself by left multiplication and a finite group of automorphisms F of N one can define an action of semidirect product NXF on N. A compact factor of N by subgroup of NXF acting freely on N is called infranil manifold. Infranil manifolds are factors of nill manifolds by finite group (but wiseversa it is not longer true). Isometry Intrinsic metric

J

Jacobi field is a vector field on a geodesic γ which can be obtained on the following way: Take a smooth one parameter family of geodesics

\gamma_\tau

with

\gamma_0=\gamma

, then the Jacobi field

J(t)=\partial\gamma_\tau(t)/\partial \tau|_{\tau=0}

Jordan curve

K

Killing vector field

L

Length metric the same as intrinsic metric. Levi-Civita connection is a natural way to differentiate vector field on Riemannian manifolds. Lipschitz convergence the convergence defined by Lipsitz metric. Lipschitz distance between metric spaces is the infimum of numbers r such that there is a bijective bi-Lipschitz map between these spaces with constants exp(-r), exp(r). Lipschitz map Logarithmic map is a right inverse of Exponential map

M

Metric ball Minimal surface is a submanifold with (vector of) mean curvature zero.

N

Natural parametrization is the parametrization by length Net. A sub set S of a metric space X is called

\epsilon

-net if for any point in X there is a point in S on the distance

\le\epsilon

. This is distinct from topological nets which generalise limits. Nil manifolds: the minimal set of manifolds which includes a point, and has the following property: any oriented

S^1

-bundle over a nil manifold is a nil manifold. It also can be defined as a factor of a connected nilpotent Lie group by a lattice. Normal bundle.... Nonexpanding map same as short map

P

Polyhedral space a simplicial complex with a metric such that each simplex with induced metric is isometric to a simplex in Euclidean space. Principal curvature Principal direction Path isometry

Q

Quasigeodesic. has two meanings here is the most common meaning: A map

f:

\to Y

is called quasigeodesic if there is a constant C such that

{1\over C}|xy|-C\le |f(x)f(y)|\le C|xy|+C.

Note that quasigeodesic is not a continuous curve in general. Quasi-isometry. A map

f:X\to Y

is called a quasi-isometry if there is a constant C such that f(X) is a C-net in Y and

{1\over C}|xy|-C\le |f(x)f(y)|\le C|xy|+C.

Note that quasi isometry is not assumed to be continuous, for example any map between compact metric spaces is a quasi isometry.

R

Radius of metric space is the infimum of radii of metric balls which contain the space completely. Radius of convexity at a point p of a Riemannian manifold is the largest radius of a ball which is a convex subset. Ray is a one side infinite geodesic which is minimizing on each interval Riemannian submersion is a map between Riemannian manifolds which is submersion and submetry at the same time.

S

Second fundamental form is a quadratic form on the tangent space of hypersurface, usually denoted by II, an equivalent way to describe shape operator of a hypersurface,

II(v,w)=\langle S(v),w\rangle

It can be also generalized to arbitrary codimension, then it is a quadratic form with values in the normal space. Shape operator for a hypersurface M is a linear operator from

T_p(M)\to T_p(M)

. If n is a unit normal field to M and v is a tangent vector then

S(v)=\pm \nabla_{v}n

(there is no standard agreement whether to use + or - in the definition). Short map is a distance non increasing map. Sol manifold is a factor of a connected solvable Lie group by a lattice. Submetry a short map f between metric spaces called submetry if for any point x and radius r we have that image of metric r-ball is an r-ball, i.e.

f(B_r(x))=B_r(f(x))

Sub-Riemannian manifold Systole. k-systole of M,

syst_k(M)

, is the minimal volume of k-cycle nonhomologous to zero.

T

Totally convex. A subset K of metric space M is called totally convex if for any two points in K any shortest path connecting them lies entirely in K, see also convex. Totally geodesic submanifold is a submanifold such that all geodesics in the submanifold are also geodesics of the surrounding manifold.

W

Word metric on a group is a metric of the Cayley graph constructed using a set of generators. Riemannian

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