Related papers: South Pointing Chariot: An Invitation to Different…
This text is a support for different courses of the master of Mechanics of the University Paris-Saclay. The content of this text is an introduction, for graduate students, to tensor algebra and analysis. Far from being exhaustive, the text…
Differential geomtrical methods for deriving the Dirac equation in Curved Spacetime are presented. Einstein's field equation is applied in a novel manner; in the most current standard reference, Birrell and Davies, 1994 [1], the suggestions…
This paper points out the usefulness of the concept of derivation along a map in many problems in Geometry and Physics. In particular it will be shown that this approach allows us to translate the usual concepts arising in Geometrical…
The purpose of this essay is to trace the historical development of geometry while focusing on how we acquired mathematical tools for describing the "shape of the universe." More specifically, our aim is to consider, without a claim to…
The chirality of an object can be studied by measuring the circular dichroism, that is, the difference in absorption of light with different helicity. The chiral optical response of an object, however, can have two different origins. On the…
The concept of number and its generalization has played a central role in the development of mathematics over many centuries and many civilizations. Noteworthy milestones in this long and arduous process were the developments of the real…
We introduce a novel formulation for geometry on discrete points. It is based on a universal differential calculus, which gives a geometric description of a discrete set by the algebra of functions. We expand this mathematical framework so…
The parallel globe is an old, very simple and ingenious device that, when systematically employed in astronomy classes, becomes a teaching tool with great potential. Properly oriented according to the local meridian, this instrument allows…
We outline an alternative approach to the geometric notion of a saddle point for real-valued functions of two variables. It is argued that this is more natural compared to the usual treatment of this topic in standard texts on Calculus.
We give an accessible introduction and elaboration on the methods used in obtaining a geodesic, which is the curve of shortest length connecting two points lying on the surface of a function. This is found through computing what's known as…
The classical Gauss Map is a piecewise continuous map from the unit interval to itself. From this map we retrieve the continued fraction expansion of irrational numbers and its dynamical properties give information about some arithmetic and…
Gauss' and Stokes' theorems are fundamental results in vector calculus and important tools in physics and engineering. When students are asked to describe the meaning of Gauss' divergence theorem, they often use statements like this: "The…
These notes present elementary introduction to tractors based on classical examples, together with glimpses towards modern invariant differential calculus related to vast class of Cartan geometries, the so called parabolic geometries.
The primary aim of this paper is to provide a simple and concrete interpretation of Cartan geometry in terms of the mathematics of idealized waywisers. Waywisers, also called hodometers, are instruments traditionally used to measure…
In this paper, we give a geometrization and a generalization of a lemma of differential Galois theory. This geometrization, in addition of giving a nice insight on this result, offers us the occasion to investigate several points of…
Discretization of curves is an ancient topic. Even discretization of curves with an eye toward differential geometry is over a century old. However there is no general theory or methodology in the literature, despite the ubiquitous use of…
The Mercator projection is sometimes confused with another mapping technique, specifically the central cylindrical projection, which projects the Earth's surface onto a cylinder tangent to the equator, as if a light source is at the Earth's…
We make a case for the unique relevance of Cartan geometry for gauge theories of gravity and supergravity. We introduce our discussion by recapitulating historical threads, providing motivations. In a first part we review the geometry of…
These notes provide an introduction to the algebra and geometry of differential operators and jet bundles. Their point of view is guided by the leitmotiv that higher-spin gravity theories call for higher-order generalisations of Lie…
Distance Geometry is based on the inverse problem that asks to find the positions of points, in a Euclidean space of given dimension, that are compatible with a given set of distances. We briefly introduce the field, and discuss some open…