An Introduction to Manifolds

In this streamlined introduction to the subject, the theory of manifolds is presented with the aim of helping the reader achieve a rapid mastery of the essential topics. By the end of the book the reader should be able to compute, at least for simple spaces, one of the most basic topological invariants of a manifold, its de Rham cohomology.

Targeted to graduate students of mathematics, this book discusses major topics like the Lie group in the study of smooth manifolds. It is said that mathematics can be learned by solving problems and not only by just reading it. To serve this purpose, this book contains a sufficient number of examples and exercises after each section in every chapter. Some of the exercises are routine ones for the general understanding of topics. The book also contains hints to difficult exercises. Answers to all exercises are given at the end of each section. It also provides proofs of all theorems in a lucid manner. The only pre-requisites are good working knowledge of point-set topology and linear algebra.

Dirac operators play an important role in several domains of mathematics and physics, for example: index theory, elliptic pseudodifferential operators, electromagnetism, particle physics, and the representation theory of Lie groups. In this essentially self-contained work, the basic ideas underlying the concept of Dirac operators are explored. Starting with Clifford algebras and the fundamentals of differential geometry, the text focuses on two main properties, namely, conformal invariance, which determines the local behavior of the operator, and the unique continuation property dominating its global behavior. Spin groups and spinor bundles are covered, as well as the relations with their classical counterparts, orthogonal groups and Clifford bundles. The chapters on Clifford algebras and the fundamentals of differential geometry can be used as an introduction to the above topics, and are suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate students. The other chapters are also accessible at this level so that this text requires very little previous knowledge of the domains covered. The reader will benefit, however, from some knowledge of complex analysis, which gives the simplest example of a Dirac operator. More advanced readers–-mathematical physicists, physicists and mathematicians from diverse areas–-will appreciate the fresh approach to the theory as well as the new results on boundary value theory.

This book is an introduction to differential manifolds. It gives solid preliminaries for more advanced topics: Riemannian manifolds, differential topology, Lie theory. It presupposes little background: the reader is only expected to master basic differential calculus, and a little point-set topology. The book covers the main topics of differential geometry: manifolds, tangent space, vector fields, differential forms, Lie groups, and a few more sophisticated topics such as de Rham cohomology, degree theory and the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for surfaces.

This book gives an introduction to the basic concepts which are used in differential topology, differential geometry, and differential equations. A certain number of concepts are essential for all three of these areas, and are so basic and elementary, that it is worthwhile to collect them together so that more advanced expositions can be given without having to start from the very beginning. The concepts are concerned with the general basic theory of differential manifolds. As a result, this book can be viewed as a prerequisite to Fundamentals of Differential Geometry. Since this book is intended as a text to follow advanced calculus, manifolds are assumed finite dimensional. In the new edition of this book, the author has made numerous corrections to the text and he has added a chapter on applications of Stokes' Theorem.