G-structure on a manifoldIn differential geometry, a G-structure on an n-manifold M, for a given structure group G, is a principal G-subbundle of the tangent frame bundle FM (or GL(M)) of M. The notion of G-structures includes various classical structures that can be defined on manifolds, which in some cases are tensor fields. For example, for the orthogonal group, an O(n)-structure defines a Riemannian metric, and for the special linear group an SL(n,R)-structure is the same as a volume form.
Frobenius theorem (differential topology)In mathematics, Frobenius' theorem gives necessary and sufficient conditions for finding a maximal set of independent solutions of an overdetermined system of first-order homogeneous linear partial differential equations. In modern geometric terms, given a family of vector fields, the theorem gives necessary and sufficient integrability conditions for the existence of a foliation by maximal integral manifolds whose tangent bundles are spanned by the given vector fields.
3-manifoldIn mathematics, a 3-manifold is a topological space that locally looks like a three-dimensional Euclidean space. A 3-manifold can be thought of as a possible shape of the universe. Just as a sphere looks like a plane to a small enough observer, all 3-manifolds look like our universe does to a small enough observer. This is made more precise in the definition below. A topological space is a 3-manifold if it is a second-countable Hausdorff space and if every point in has a neighbourhood that is homeomorphic to Euclidean 3-space.
Integrable systemIn mathematics, integrability is a property of certain dynamical systems. While there are several distinct formal definitions, informally speaking, an integrable system is a dynamical system with sufficiently many conserved quantities, or first integrals that its motion is confined to a submanifold of much smaller dimensionality than that of its phase space.
Distribution (differential geometry)In differential geometry, a discipline within mathematics, a distribution on a manifold is an assignment of vector subspaces satisfying certain properties. In the most common situations, a distribution is asked to be a vector subbundle of the tangent bundle . Distributions satisfying a further integrability condition give rise to foliations, i.e. partitions of the manifold into smaller submanifolds. These notions have several applications in many fields of mathematics, e.g.
3-sphereIn mathematics, a 3-sphere, glome or hypersphere is a higher-dimensional analogue of a sphere. It may be embedded in 4-dimensional Euclidean space as the set of points equidistant from a fixed central point. Analogous to how the boundary of a ball in three dimensions is an ordinary sphere (or 2-sphere, a two-dimensional surface), the boundary of a ball in four dimensions is a 3-sphere (an object with three dimensions). A 3-sphere is an example of a 3-manifold and an n-sphere.
