Universality of the Divergence
Differential Geometry
2026-02-17 v4
Abstract
Algebraists asked whether or not an operator on the module of smooth sections of the tangent bundle over the commutative ring of smooth functions of a smooth (orientable) manifold (can be any piece of a compact or a complete manifold) can be characterized by two axioms. In this note we confirm this for any smooth manifold M under the assumption that H^1(M, R) = {0}.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2511.01341,
title = {Universality of the Divergence},
author = {Lei Ni and Yijian Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.01341},
year = {2026}
}