Connection (mathematics)
In differential geometry, connection (spelt as connexion by the British) is a way of specifying covariant differentiation on a manifold. The theory of connections leads to invariants of curvature, and the so-called torsion.In one particular approach, a connection is a Lie algebra valued 1-form which is the multiplant of the difference between the covariant derivative and the ordinary partial derivative. That is, partial derivatives are not an intrinsic notion on a manifold: a connection 'fixes up' the concept and permits discussion in geometric terms. Connections give rise to parallel transport.
There are quite a number of possible approaches to the connection concept. They include the following:
- A rather direct module-style approach to covariant differentiation, stating the conditions allowing vector fields to act on vector bundle sections.
- Traditional index notation specifies the connection by components (three indices, but this is not a tensor).
- In Riemannian geometry there is a way of deriving a connection from the metric tensor (Levi-Civita connection).
- Using principal bundles and Lie algebra-valued differential forms (see Cartan formalism, vierbein).
- The most abstract approach may that suggested by Alexander Grothendieck, where a connection is seen as descent data from infinitesimal neighbourhoods of the diagonal.
