On some algebraic aspects concerning smooth manifolds

J.V.Ramana Raju1 School of Graduate Studies Jain University, Bangalore - 560 027 Karnataka, INDIA email: ramanraj21@yahoo.co.in T.Venkatesh1 Dept of Mathematics Rani Channamma University, Belgaum - 591 156 Karnataka, INDIA email: tmathvenky@yahoo.co.in 2010 Mathematics Subject Classication - 53C15 , 53C35 , 14J81 Abstract There are many algebraic facets to the geometry of dierentiable manifolds. In this survey article algebraic aspects of low dimensional smooth manifolds are explored pertaining to algebraic interpretation of geometry. In particular the theory of Riemann surfaces have a neat interpretation for an algebraist. Similar algebraic formulations of geometric objects have been observed in case of certain compact manifolds. Applications of such connections have been enlisted. Introduction Some algebraic structures are quite often used in geometry. For instance the quadratic form in linear algebra leads to the concept of distance on arbitrarily curved smooth manifolds. Continuous groups envisaged by Sophius Lie, have found interesting applications in understanding symmetries of nature. Harish-Chandra has used the group structure on symmetric spaces, to study the decomposition of functions dened on such generalized Euclidean spaces. We thus intend to survey such algebro-geometric features coming up in the study of low dimensional smooth manifolds. In the rst section we look at the classication problem of low dimensional manifolds, the study of which reveals a deep relation between algebra and geometry. In the second section global aspects of geometry in lower dimensions have been studied, in relation to algebraic structures.
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Both the authors are visitors to the Mathematical Sciences Institute Belgaum

In the third and concluding section we describe applications of the algebraic structures of geometry to various disciplines in mathematics and allied subjects.

Section 1. Classication theory. All smooth manifolds in real dimension one can be easily described as certain quotients. We classify them into two classes. The rst class leads to geometric spaces homeomorphic to a quotient which has an abelian group structure. The group structure we show is a very familiar one namely the circle group S1 .This group can be realized purely as a real algebraic group in the form of the quotient R/Z. Similarly all 1-dimensional open manifolds are homeomorphic to the real line. We now consider manifolds in dimension two. In dimension two, again every smooth manifold is expressible as a quotient, albeit in a topological sense. The problem we consider here is to express smooth 2-manifolds as quotients in an algebraic sense. Topologically, every orientable closed 2-manifold is homeomorphic to a sphere with g handles, with g= 0,1,2. The algebraic classication can be understood by appealing to the uniformization theorem of Poincare Koebe.Every two dimensional oriented real manifold can be complexied by the well known theory developed by C.F.Gauss, Korn, Litchenstein etal.[5] With this point of view, there is no distinction between real two manifolds and the complex 1-manifolds, as long as we are in the orientable case. One dimensional complex manifolds are also called as Riemann Surfaces.

Theorem 1.0 : Every compact Riemann surface is biholomorphic to one of the following spaces 1. The projective line P1 (C) which is a quotient of the extended complex plane. 2. The complex tori C/ where is a lattice in C.

The projective line mentioned in (1) above is topologically the sphere, while the Riemann surfaces mentioned in (2) are topologically spheres with handles. Moreover, the open Riemann surfaces other than the trivial case of the complex plane, are biholomorphic to H/ where H is the upper half plane and is a discrete group acting on H. Thus we are successful in interpreting orientable 2-manifolds as algebraic quotients. A well known theorem in algebraic geometry reveals a lot more about compact Riemann Surfaces. Theorem 1.1(Chow):Every compact complex manifold embedded in Pn (C) is the common zero set of some nite number of homogeneous polynomials F1 , F2 ,.....Fn . Manifolds that are expressible as common zero sets of a bunch of polynomials are called Algebraic manifolds. We give a more precise denition in the next section. Since every compact Riemann surface can be embedded in P3 (C), it can be called as an algebraic manifold by appealing to Chows theorem. This fact makes the study of compact 2-manifolds very interesting to algebraists and others who apply such theories to other interdisciplinary areas. Section 2. Global Aspects The global nature of geometric objects can be revealed by the algebraic structures embedded in them and conversely geometric properties determine the algebraic properties. Symmetries on a simply connected topological group lead to interesting group actions. If the topological group is also a symmetric space then the corresponding quotients are quite often smooth manifolds. Similarly ring theoretic properties concerning certain manifolds lead to interesting results.In this section we shall survey such aspects leading to some insight on low dimensional geometry and topology. The fundamental group of a smooth manifold which is a very important algebraic-topological invariant can be related to symmetries of a manifold as the following discussion reveals. Consider the simply connected topological space R2 . Let L1 be the mapping (x,y)(x+1,y), and

Let L2 be the mapping (x,y)(x,y+1) The group of symmetries generated by L1 and L2 acts on R2 giving rise to the genus-1 compact surface namely the torus. This group of symmetries can be identied with the fundamental group of T2 (torus) namely Z Z. This can be generalized as follows. Let G be a simply connected topological group and D be a discrete normal subgroup of G. Then D can be identied with the fundamental group of the space G/D, since one can construct a covering space projection say : G G/D, thus showing that G is the universal covering space of G/D. Another concrete example is the following. Let G = R, D = Z. Now consider S1 = R/Z as the locus {z C | |z| = 1 }, the map e2i is the covering map from R onto S1 . Such constructions lead to realization of a more deeper phenomena: Let be a discrete subgroup of a continuous group G. Then a neighborhood U of the identity element e in G with U = e. A group action of on a topological space X is said to be properly discontinuous if for every closed and bounded subset K of X, the set T = { | K K = } is nite. Theorem 2.0 :- Let be a discrete group which acts freely and properly discontinuous on a manifold . Then there is a unique smooth structure of a dierentiable manifold on M = M/ with the quotient topology, such that each p M has a connected neighborhood U with the property : 1 (U) = U is a decomposition of 1 (U) into its open connected components. Here one can also see that | component U . U is a dieomorphism onto U for each

We can relate global properties of a manifold like curvature with the nature of its fundamental group. Thus the discussion so far shows that symmetries on a manifold are implicitly related to certain global geometric attributes. A theorem of Lawson and Yau is a notable point in this direction. Theorem 2.1 (Lawson-Yau) Let M be a closed manifold with sectional curvature KM 0. If 1 (M) has the form G1 G2 with a trivial center then M is homeomorphic to a product M1 M2 , with Gi = i (Mi ), i=1,2 4

Ring theoretic properties of a manifold: In this subsection we consider a class of smooth manifolds that can be called algebraic manifolds. A smooth manifold M is called algebraic if the set of all points of M can be realized as a zero set of a set of polynomials, in other words if M is an algebraic set. Thus manifolds that we study here are varieties over R or C depending on whether M is a real or a complex manifold. Submanifolds of R2 given by the conic sections and those in R3 given by quadrics are some of the simplest examples of algebraic manifolds. In the case of plane curves like the circle, parabola etc , the dening polynomial is an element of the polynomial ring R[X,Y], while the sphere ellipsoid etc are dened by elements of the ring R[X,Y,Z]. These simple examples are what algebraic geometers call hypersurfaces. More precisely manifolds dened by a single polynomial are called hypersurfaces. They are essentially certain codimension-one submanifolds in the ambient space. Given a smooth manifold, the collection of all smooth functions on M is a ring. In case of algebraic manifolds one considers globally a collection of polynomials vanishing on M. We consider here for simplicity submanifolds of Cn and hence we look at the polynomial ring C[X1 .....Xn ], although one can consider some other elds also. Let S be any set of polynomials in C[X1 .....Xn ]. By an algebraic set we mean the set Z={(a1 ,a2 ...an )|f(a1 ,a2 ....an )=0, f in S} We say that a manifold is dened by an ideal if every polynomial vanishes identically on each point of M. In other word points of M satisfy the polynomials in I. Proposition 2.0: Let M be an algebraic submanifold of Cn . Then there exists an ideal I such that M is dened by the ideal I. Proof: Since M is algebraic there exists a set S={f1 ,f2 ......} such that M={(a1 ,a2 ...an ) Cn | f((a1 ,a2 ....an )=0 f in S} Now I is obtained as an ideal generated by S. By the Hilbert basis theorem, I is nitely generated. Hence the set S if innite can be reduced to a nite one. This result denes the notion of an ideal corresponding to an algebraic manifold. However two dierent ideals may still dene the same manifold. Let IM be the ideal obtained by the set of all polynomials that are identically 5

zero on all the points of M. Then the radical ideal of IM is dened as IM = {f C[X1 ,X2 .....Xn ]| fm IM for some m 1}. Given a radical ideal of C[X1 ,X2 ....Xn ] one can relate a unique geometric object embedded in Cn . However smoothness of the geometric object is an issue, and hence this object is called an ane variety. The smoothness can be checked by looking at the jacobian or by examining the local rings at each points. Thus there exists a bijective correspondence between the radical ideals of C[X1 ,......,Xn ] and the ane varieties of Cn . If every point of the variety is smooth than it is a complex manifold. Another global algebraic object associated with an algebraic manifold is the coordinate ring. Let C[X1 ,...,Xn ] be the ring of polynomials in n variables and let I be the ideal dening the manifold M. Then the quotient ring C[X1 .....Xn ]/I is called as the coordinate ring associated to M. In fact some authors describe any algebraic manifold by a pair of the form {I,C[X1 ,....,Xn ]/I}. The following proposition states a criteria to describe connected manifolds in this category. Proposition 2.1: Let MI = {I,C[X1 ,....,Xn ]/I} be an algebraic manifold which is connected. Then the coordinate ring I,C[X1 ,....,Xn ]/I is an integral domain. Section 3. Applications and Extensions. The algebraic structures that have been explored in this survey have interesting applications both within and outside of Mathematics. In number theory Minkowski has studied the geometry of numbers thus relating to number systems and geometry. This theme leads to the notion of lattices in number theory which has interesting consequences concerned with sphere packing problems and generalizations. The theory of elliptic curves and its higher dimensional analogues makes an extensive use of algebrac group structure. Counting of rational points on the kind of manifolds described in this paper have very important applications in theory of codes and ciphers. Grassmann manifolds for instance are studied to design schemes for error-correcting codes. In topology certain 3-manifolds are explicitly constructed using number theoretic relations concerning geometry . Although Thurstons classication of compact 3-manifolds is a well chalked out programme constructing a manifold with one of the eight geometries given by Thurston is a challenging task. The algebraic/number theoretic framework 6

can be put into eective use in such a pursuit. Some exotic structures have been unravelled by making use of real algebraic geometry. Orbits of discrete dynamical systems have interesting algebraic properties when one considers rational maps. The familiar Julia sets and Fatou sets can be viewed in special cases as algebraic-geometric structures. In cosmology the understanding of gravitation and its manifestation is aided by the algebraic structures of the manifold in question. For instance the gravitational lagrangian is being understood in the form of an algebraic curve. Kahler manifolds with algebraic structures have been studied by Mathematical physicists. In string theory in addition to the four dimensional space time, six additional curled up dimensions have been considered to explain the cosmos. It is here that the algebraic structures involved in Calabi-Yau manifolds have been exploited. In Robotics and computerized Imaging unstructured terrain representations of path planning and localization of mobile robots in partially known environment is considered using algebraic loci. Optimization in control theory and algebraic statistics make heavy use of algebraic variety structure on manifolds.

References 1. J.Munkres, Topology, Prentice Hall of India. 2. Kenji Ueno, Algebraic Geometry I, AMS Publications. 3. S.Helgason, Dierential Geometry and Symmetric spaces, Academic Press New York. 4. S.T.Yau, Review of Geometry and Analysis in Mathematical Frontiers and Perspectives Edited by V.I.Arnold,etal AMS Publications. 5. V.Srinivas, R.Simha, Riemann Surfaces in Analysis Geometry and Probability, Edited by K.R Parthasarathy,etal TRIM series HBA. 6. William,Boothby, An Introduction Deerentiable Manifolds and Riemannian Geometry. Academic Press New York.