Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Stereographic Projection and Metric Tensors

In course

MATH-213: Differential geometry I - curves and surfaces

This course serves as an introduction to classical differential geometry, which studies the geometric properties of curves and surfaces in the Euclidean space. ...

Description

This lecture covers the concept of stereographic projection as a parametrization of a hyperbolic plane, focusing on the metric tensor. The instructor explains how the projection is compliant with the metric tensor, providing exercises for better understanding. The lecture also discusses isometric properties between hyperbolic planes, emphasizing complete and hangine metrics. Various conforming models are presented, highlighting the isometry and metric tensor relationships in different settings.

Instructor

Marc Troyanov

Doctorat en mathématiques à l'Université de Genève (1987) - Postdoc à Paris et Salt-Lake City, puis professeur assistant à l'UQAM (Montréal). Venu en 1993 à l'EPFL comme professeur assistant, nommé MER en 1999 puis professeur titulaire en 2005. Domaine de recherche : géométrie différentielle, analyse sur les variétés et sur les espaces métriques.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Mathematics

Geometry: Differential geometry

Related concepts (32)

Tensor

In mathematics, a tensor is an algebraic object that describes a multilinear relationship between sets of algebraic objects related to a vector space. Tensors may map between different objects such as vectors, scalars, and even other tensors. There are many types of tensors, including scalars and vectors (which are the simplest tensors), dual vectors, multilinear maps between vector spaces, and even some operations such as the dot product.

Tensor contraction

In multilinear algebra, a tensor contraction is an operation on a tensor that arises from the natural pairing of a finite-dimensional vector space and its dual. In components, it is expressed as a sum of products of scalar components of the tensor(s) caused by applying the summation convention to a pair of dummy indices that are bound to each other in an expression. The contraction of a single mixed tensor occurs when a pair of literal indices (one a subscript, the other a superscript) of the tensor are set equal to each other and summed over.

Mixed tensor

In tensor analysis, a mixed tensor is a tensor which is neither strictly covariant nor strictly contravariant; at least one of the indices of a mixed tensor will be a subscript (covariant) and at least one of the indices will be a superscript (contravariant). A mixed tensor of type or valence , also written "type (M, N)", with both M > 0 and N > 0, is a tensor which has M contravariant indices and N covariant indices. Such a tensor can be defined as a linear function which maps an (M + N)-tuple of M one-forms and N vectors to a scalar.

Hyperbolic space

In mathematics, hyperbolic space of dimension n is the unique simply connected, n-dimensional Riemannian manifold of constant sectional curvature equal to -1. It is homogeneous, and satisfies the stronger property of being a symmetric space. There are many ways to construct it as an open subset of with an explicitly written Riemannian metric; such constructions are referred to as models. Hyperbolic 2-space, H2, which was the first instance studied, is also called the hyperbolic plane.

Differentiable curve

Differential geometry of curves is the branch of geometry that deals with smooth curves in the plane and the Euclidean space by methods of differential and integral calculus. Many specific curves have been thoroughly investigated using the synthetic approach. Differential geometry takes another path: curves are represented in a parametrized form, and their geometric properties and various quantities associated with them, such as the curvature and the arc length, are expressed via derivatives and integrals using vector calculus.

Related lectures (30)

Hyperbolic Geometry

Introduces hyperbolic geometry, covering complete metric spaces, isometries, and Gaussian curvature in dimension 2.

Developable Surfaces and Parametrization

Explores developable surfaces, parametrization, equations verification, and conformally flat surfaces.

Conformal Maps and Hyperbolic Geometry

Explores conformal maps, hyperbolic geometry, and isometric properties of disks.

Implicit Surface Parametrizations

Explores implicit surface parametrizations and the use of metric tensors in surface parameterization.

Intersection of Manifolds in Exercise 8.2