Math 598 Feb 14, 20051

Geometry and Topology II

Spring 2005, PSU

Lecture Notes 7

2.7 Smooth submanifolds

Let N be a smooth manifold. We say that M ⊂ N m is an n-dimensional
smooth submanifold of N , provided that for every p ∈ M there exists a local
chart (U, φ) of N centered at p such that

φ(U ∩ M ) = Rn × {o},

where o denotes the origin of Rm−k .

Proposition 1. A smooth submanifold M ⊂ N is a smooth manifold.
Proof. Since M ⊂ N , M is Hausdorf and has a countable basis. For every
p ∈ M , let (U, φ) be a local chart of M with φ(U ∩ M ) = Rn × {o}. Set U :=
U ∩ M , and φ := φ|U . Then φ : U → Rn × {o} & Rn is a homeomorphism,
and thus M is a toplogical manifold. It remains to show that M is smooth.
To see this note that if (V , ψ) is the restriction of another local chart of N
to M . Then ψ ◦ (φ)−1 = ψ ◦ φ−1 |φ(U ) , which is smooth.
The above proof shows how M induces a differential structure on N .
Whenver we talk of a submanifold M as a smooth manifold in its own right,
we mean that M is equipped with the differential structue which it inherits
from N .
Theorem 2. Let f : M n → N m be a smooth map of constant rank k (i.e.,
rank(dfp ) = k, for all p ∈ M ). Then, for any q ∈ N , f −1 (q) is an (n − k)-
dimensional smooth submanifold of M .
Proof. Let p ∈ f −1 (q). By the rank theorem there exists local neighborhoods
(U, φ) and (V, ψ) of M and N centered at p and q respectively such that

f˜(x) := ψ ◦ f ◦ φ−1 (x1 , . . . , xn ) = (x1 , . . . , xk , 0, . . . , 0).

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Last revised: February 19, 2005

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Next note that
φ(U ∩ f −1 (q)) = φ(U ) ∩ φ ◦ f −1 ◦ ψ −1 (o) = Rn ∩ f˜−1 (o) = {o} × Rn−k .
Thus f −1 (q) is a smooth submanifold of N (To be quite strict, we need to
show that φ(U ∩f −1 (q)) = Rn−k ×{o}, but this is easily achieved if we replace
ψ with θ ◦ ψ, where θ : Rm → Rm is the diffeomorphism which switches the
first k and last m − k cordinates).
Exercise 3. Use the previous result to show that Sn is smooth n-dimensional
submanifold of Rn+1 .
Another application of the last theorem is as follows:
Example 4. SLn is a smooth submanifold of GLn . To see this define
f : GLn → R by f (A) := det(A). Then SLn = f −1 (1), and thus it re-
mains to show that f has constant rank on GLn . Since this rank has to
be either 1 or 0 at each point (why?), it suffices to show that the rank is
not zero anywhere, i.e., it is enough to show that for every A ∈ GLn there
exists X ∈ TA GLn such that dfA (X) )= 0. To see this, let X = [α] where
α : (−%, %) → GLn is the curve given by α(t) := (1 − t)A. Note that, since
det is contiuous, det(α(t)) )= 0, for all t ∈ (−%, %), once we make sure that %
is small enough. Thus α is indeed well-defined. Now recall that
dfA (X) := [f ◦ α] ∈ Tf (A) R.
Further recall that there is a canonical isomorphism θ : Tf (A) R → R given
by θ([γ]) = γ " (0). Thus
θ ◦ dfA (X) = (f ◦ α)" (0) = det(A) )= 0.
So, since θ is an isomorphism, dfA (X) )= 0, as desired.
Exercise 5. Show that On is a smooth n(n − 1)/2-dimensional submanifold
of GLn . (Hint: Define f : GLn → GLn by f (A) := AT A. Then show that
TA GLn is given by the equivalence class of curves of the form A + tB where
B is any n × n matrix. Finally, show that dfA (TA GLn ) is isomorphic to the
space of symmetric n × n matrices).
Note that if A ∈ On , the det(A) = ±1. Thus On has two components.
The component with positive determinant is known as the special orthogonal
group SOn .
Exercise 6. Show that SO3 is diffeomorphic to RP3 .

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2.8 Smooth immersions and embeddings
We say, f : M → N is a smooth embedding if f (M ) is a smooth submanifold
of N and f : M → f (M ) is a diffeomorphism. If f : M → N is a local
smooth embedding, i.e., every p ∈ M has an open neighborhood U such that
f : U → N is a smooth embedding, we say that f is a smoothe immersion.
Theorem 7. Let f : M n → N be a smooth map. Then f is an immersion if
and only if f has constant rank n on M .
Proof. If f is an immersion, then it is obvious from the definition of immer-
sion (and the chain rule), that f has everywhere full rank (becuase then,
locally, f ◦ f −1 is the identity map).
Conversely, suppse that f has constan rank n. Then, by the rank theorem,
for every p ∈ M , there exists local charts (U, φ) and (V, ψ) of M and N
centered at p and f (p) respectively such that

f˜(x) = ψ ◦ f ◦ φ−1 (x1 , . . . , xn ) = (x1 , . . . , xn , 0, . . . , 0).

So f is one-to-one. Thus (since M is locally compact, and N is hausdorf) f

is a local homeomoprhim. In particular, after replacing U by a smaller open
neighborhood of p which has compact closure inside U , we may assume that
f −1 : f (U ) → U is well defined and continuous (we can always perform such
a shrinking of U , since U is homeomoprphic to Rn ; in particular, we may
replace U by φ−1 (int B1 (o))). Next note that

ψ(V ∩ f (U )) = ψ(f (U )) = f˜(φ(U )) = f˜(Rn ) = Rn × {o}.

Thus f (U ) is a smoooth submanifold of N . It remains, therefore, only to

show that f −1 is smooth. To this end note that f˜−1 : Rn × {o} → f (U ) is
well defined. Further, since, as we showed above, ψ : f (U ) → Rn × {o}, it
follows that
φ−1 ◦ f˜−1 ◦ ψ = f −1
on U . Since each of the maps on the left hand side of the above equation is
smooth, f −1 is smooth.
The following corollaries of the above theorem are immediate:
Corollary 8. Let f : M → N be a smooth map. Then f is a smooth em-
bedding if and only if f is a homeomorphism onto its image and f has full
rank.

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Corollary 9. Let f : M → N be a smooth map, and suppose that M is
compact. Then f is a smooth embedding if and only if f is one-to-one and
has full rank.
Next we are going to use the last corollary to show that
Theorem 10. Every smooth compact manifold M n may be smoothly embed-
ded in a Euclidean space.
The proof of the above is a refinement of the proof we had given earlier
for the existence of topological embeddings in Euclidean space. First we need
to prove the following basic fact:
Lemma 11 (Existence of the smooth step function). For any 0 < a <
b there exits a smooth function σa,b : R → R such that σa,b = 0 on (−∞, r1 ]
and σa,b = 1 on [r2 , ∞).
Proof. Define φ : R → R by
!
0 if x ≤ 0,
φ(x) :=
e−1/x if x > 0.

Then φ is smooth. Next define θ : R → R by

θ(x) := φ(x − a)φ(b − x).

Then θ is smooth, θ > 0 on (a, b), and θ = 0 on (−∞, a] ∪ [b, ∞). Finally set
"a
θ(x) dx
σa,b (x) := "xb .
a
θ(x) dx

Exercise 12. Show that the function φ in the above lemma is smooth.
Now we are ready to prove the main result of this section.
Proof of Theorem 10. As we had argued earlier, since M is compact, there
exists a finite cover Ui , 1 ≤ i ≤ m, of M and homeomorphisms φi : Ui → Rn ,
such that Vi := φ−1 n
i (int B (1)) also cover M .
Now define λ : Rn → R by λ(x) := σ1,2 (-x-), where σ is the step fucntion
defined above. Since - · - is smooth on Rn − {o} and λ is constant on an

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open neighborhood of o, it follows that that λ is smooth. In particular note
that λ = 1 on B n (1) and λ = 0 on Rn − B n (2). So if we define λi : M → R
by settting λi (p) := λ(φi (p)) in case p ∈ Ui and λi (p) := 0 otherwise, then
λi = 1 on Vi and λi = 0 on M − φ−1 n
i (B (2)). In addition, we claim that,
since M is hausorf, λi is smooth. To see this, let Ki := φ−1 n
i (B (2)). Then Ki
is compact. So Ki is closed, since M is hausdorf. This yields that M − Ki
is open. In particular, since Ki ⊂ Ui , {Ui , M − Ki } is an open cover of M .
Since λi is smooth on Ui (where it is the composition of smooth functions)
and λi is smooth on M − Ki (where λi = 0) it follows that λi is smooth.
Next define fi : M → Rn by fi (p) = λi (p)φi (p) if p ∈ Ui , and fi (p) = 0
otherwise. Then fi is smooth, since, similar to the argument we gave for λi
above, fi is smooth on Ui and M − Ki . Finally, define f : M → Rm(n+1) by
# $
f (p) = λ1 (p), . . . , λm (p), f1 (p), . . . , fm (p) .

Since each component function of f is smooth, f is smooth. We claim that f

is the desired embedding. To this end, since f is smooth, and M is compact,
it suffices to check that f is one-to-one and is an immersion.
To see that f is an immersion, note that, since Vi cover M and λi = 1 on
Vi , at least one component function fi is a diffeomorphism of a neighborhood
of p into Rn , and so has rank n at p. This implies that the rank of f is at
least n, which since dim(M ) = n, implies in turn that rank of f is equal to
n.
To see that f is one-to-one, suppose that f (p) = f (q). Then fi (p) = fi (q),
and λi (p) = λi (q). Since Vi cover M , p ∈ Vj for some fixed j. Consequently

λj (q) = λj (p) )= 0,

which yields that q ∈ Uj . Since p, q ∈ Uj , it follows, from definition of fi ,

that
λj (p)φj (p) = fj (p) = fj (q) = λj (q)φj (q).
So we conclude that φj (p) = φj (q), which yields that p = q.

2.9 Tangent bundle

If M n is a smooth manifold then we set

T M := ∪ Tp M.
p∈M

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Note that if X ∈ T M , then X ∈ Tp M for a unique p ∈ M . This defines a
natural projection π : T M → M .
Recall that for each p ∈ Rn there exists a canonical isomorphism θp : Tp Rn →
Rn (given by θp [α] := α" (0)). Using this we may define a bijection θ : T Rn →
Rn × Rn by setting:
# $
θ(X) := π(X), θπ(X) (X) .
We topologize T Rn by declaring that θ is a homeomorphism, i.e., we say
that U ⊂ T Rn is open if and only if θ(U ) is open. Further, we may use θ to
endow T Rn with the standard differential structure of Rn . Thus T Rn is a
smooth 2n-dimensional manifold.
Next note that if f : M → N is smooth then we may define a mapping
df : T M → T N by setting df |Tp M := dfp . If f is a diffeomorphism, then df is
a bijection. Thus if (U, φ) is a local chart of M , then we obtain a bijection
from T U to Rn × Rn given by
% # $&
θφ (X) := φ(p), θφ(p) dφ(X) , where p := π(X).

Requiring θ to be a homeomorphism topologizes T M . More explicitly, note

that if (Ui , φi ) is an atlas for M , then T Ui cover T M . We say that V ⊂ T M
is open if θφi (V ∩ T Ui ) is open for every i. We define the tangent bundle of
M as T M endowed with this topology. In particular, (T Ui , θφi ) is an atlas
for T M , and thus T M is a 2n-manifold, once we check that:
Exercise 13. Show that T M is hausdorff and has a countable basis.
Furthermoe we can show:
Proposition 14. If M n is a smooth manifold, then T M is a smooth 2n-
manifold.
Proof. It remains only to verify that the local charts (T Ui , θφi ) are compat-
ible, i.e., θφi ◦ θφ−1
j
is smooth (whenever T Ui ∩ T Uj )= ∅). To see this let
n n
(x, y) ∈ R × R , and suppose that
X := θφ−1
j
(x, y).

# θφj (X)
Then $ = (x, y). Thus x = φj (p), where p := π(X), and y =
θx dφj (X) . So we have
p = φ−1
j (x), and X = dφ−1 −1
j (θx (y)).

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Now note that

θφi ◦ θφ−1
j
(x, y) = θφi (X)
% # $&
= φi (p), θφi (p) dφi (X)
% % &&
−1 −1 −1
= φi ◦ φj (x), θφi ◦φ−1j (x)
d(φi ◦ φj )(θx (y)) .

Thus, since φi ◦ φ−1 −1

j is smooth, it follows that θφi ◦ θφj is smooth.

A vector field is a mapping X : M → T M such that π(X(p)) = p for all

p ∈ M . We say that M n is parallelizable if there are n continuos vector fields
on M which are linearly independent at each point.

Exercise 15. Show that T M is homeomprphic to M × Rn if and only if M

is parallelizable. In particular, T S1 is homeomorphic to S1 × R.

Suppose that to each Tp M there is associated an inner product, i.e., a

positive definite symmetric bilinear map gp : Tp M × Tp M → R. Then we
may define a mapping f : T M → R by f (X) := gπ(X) (X, X). If f is smooth,
we say that g is a smooth Riemannian metric, and (M, g) is a Riemannian
manifold. For example, if M is any smooth manifold, and f : M → Rn is
any smooth immersion, then we may define a Riemannian metric on f by
' (
gp (X, Y ) := dfp (X), dfp (Y ) ,

where /·, ·0 is the standard inner product on Rn . In particular, since every

compact manifold admits a smooth embedding into a Euclidean space, it
follows that every compact smooth manifold admits a smooth Riemannian
metric. If M is a smooth Riemannian manifold then the unit tangnet bundle
U T M is defined as the set of tangent vectors of M of length 1.

Exercise 16. Show that the unit tangent bundle of a smooth n-manifold is
a smooth 2n − 1 manifold.

Exercise 17. Show that T 1 S2 is diffeomorphic to RP3 .