Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Vector bundle
Summary
In mathematics, a vector bundle is a topological construction that makes precise the idea of a family of vector spaces parameterized by another space (for example could be a topological space, a manifold, or an algebraic variety): to every point of the space we associate (or "attach") a vector space in such a way that these vector spaces fit together to form another space of the same kind as (e.g. a topological space, manifold, or algebraic variety), which is then called a vector bundle over .
The simplest example is the case that the family of vector spaces is constant, i.e., there is a fixed vector space such that for all in : in this case there is a copy of for each in and these copies fit together to form the vector bundle over . Such vector bundles are said to be trivial. A more complicated (and prototypical) class of examples are the tangent bundles of smooth (or differentiable) manifolds: to every point of such a manifold we attach the tangent space to the manifold at that point. Tangent bundles are not, in general, trivial bundles. For example, the tangent bundle of the sphere is non-trivial by the hairy ball theorem. In general, a manifold is said to be parallelizable if, and only if, its tangent bundle is trivial.
Vector bundles are almost always required to be locally trivial, which means they are examples of fiber bundles. Also, the vector spaces are usually required to be over the real or complex numbers, in which case the vector bundle is said to be a real or complex vector bundle (respectively). Complex vector bundles can be viewed as real vector bundles with additional structure. In the following, we focus on real vector bundles in the .
A real vector bundle consists of:
topological spaces (base space) and (total space)
a continuous surjection (bundle projection)
for every in , the structure of a finite-dimensional real vector space on the fiber
where the following compatibility condition is satisfied: for every point in , there is an open neighborhood of , a natural number , and a homeomorphism
such that for all in ,
for all vectors in , and
the map is a linear isomorphism between the vector spaces and .
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (21)
MATH-473: Complex manifolds
The goal of this course is to help students learn the basic theory of complex manifolds and Hodge theory.
MATH-657: Deformation Theory
We will study classical and modern deformation theory of schemes and coherent sheaves. Participants should have a solid background in scheme-theory, for example being familiar with the first 3 chapter
MATH-322: Differential geometry II - smooth manifolds
Smooth manifolds constitute a certain class of topological spaces which locally look like some Euclidean space R^n and on which one can do calculus. We introduce the key concepts of this subject, such
Related publications (93)
Related concepts (34)
Fiber bundle
In mathematics, and particularly topology, a fiber bundle (or, in Commonwealth English: fibre bundle) is a space that is a product space, but may have a different topological structure. Specifically, the similarity between a space and a product space is defined using a continuous surjective map, that in small regions of behaves just like a projection from corresponding regions of to The map called the projection or submersion of the bundle, is regarded as part of the structure of the bundle.
Differentiable manifold
In mathematics, a differentiable manifold (also differential manifold) is a type of manifold that is locally similar enough to a vector space to allow one to apply calculus. Any manifold can be described by a collection of charts (atlas). One may then apply ideas from calculus while working within the individual charts, since each chart lies within a vector space to which the usual rules of calculus apply. If the charts are suitably compatible (namely, the transition from one chart to another is differentiable), then computations done in one chart are valid in any other differentiable chart.
Scheme (mathematics)
In mathematics, a scheme is a mathematical structure that enlarges the notion of algebraic variety in several ways, such as taking account of multiplicities (the equations x = 0 and x2 = 0 define the same algebraic variety but different schemes) and allowing "varieties" defined over any commutative ring (for example, Fermat curves are defined over the integers). Scheme theory was introduced by Alexander Grothendieck in 1960 in his treatise "Éléments de géométrie algébrique"; one of its aims was developing the formalism needed to solve deep problems of algebraic geometry, such as the Weil conjectures (the last of which was proved by Pierre Deligne).
Related MOOCs (11)
Introduction to optimization on smooth manifolds: first order methods
Learn to optimize on smooth, nonlinear spaces: Join us to build your foundations (starting at "what is a manifold?") and confidently implement your first algorithm (Riemannian gradient descent).
Algebra (part 1)
Un MOOC francophone d'algèbre linéaire accessible à tous, enseigné de manière rigoureuse et ne nécessitant aucun prérequis.
Algebra (part 1)
Un MOOC francophone d'algèbre linéaire accessible à tous, enseigné de manière rigoureuse et ne nécessitant aucun prérequis.