A geometric perspective on the Piola identity in Riemannian settings

The Piola identity $\operatorname{div} \operatorname{cof} \nabla f=0$ is a central result in the mathematical theory of elasticity. We prove a generalized version of the Piola identity for mappings between Riemannian manifolds, using two approaches, based on different interpretations of the cofactor of a linear map: one follows the lines of the classical Euclidean derivation and the other is based on a variational interpretation via Null-Lagrangians. In both cases, we first review the Euclidean case before proceeding to the general Riemannian setting.