This expository paper contains a detailed introduction to some important works concerning the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem. The study of this theorem has a long history dating back to Gauss's Theorema Egregium (Latin: Remarkable Theorem) and culminated in Chern's groundbreaking work [14] in 1944, which is a deep and wonderful application of Elie Cartan's formalism. The idea and tools in [14] have a great generalization and continue to produce important results till today. In this paper, we give four different proofs of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem on Riemannian manifolds, namely Chern's simple intrinsic proof, a topological proof, Mathai-Quillen's Thom form proof and McKean-Singer-Patodi's heat equation proof. These proofs are related with remarkable developments in differential geometry such as the Chern-Weil theory, theory of characteristic classes, Mathai-Quillen's formalism and the Atiyah-Singer index theorem. It is through these brilliant achievements the great importance and influence of Chern's insights and ideas are shown. Our purpose here is to use the Gauss- Bonnet-Chern theorem as a guide to expose the reader to some advanced topics in modern differential geometry.
From the point of view of index theory, we give a simple proof of a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for all Finsler manifolds by the Cartan connection. Based on this, we establish a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for any metric-compatible connection and also derive the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula of Lackey.
In this paper, we give a simple proof of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem for a real oriented Finsler vector bundle with rank equal to the dimension of the base manifold. As an application, a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for any metric-compatible connection is established on Finsler manifolds.
In this note, we use Chern's magic form $Φ_k$ in his famous proof of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem to define a mass for asymptotically flat manifolds. It turns out that the new defined mass is equivalent to the one that we introduced recently by using the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern curvature $L_k$. Moreover, this equivalence implies a simple proof of the equivalence between the ADM mass and the intrinsically defined mass via the Ricci tensor, which was reconsidered by Miao-Tam \cite{MT} and Herzlich \cite{H} very recently.
In this paper, we prove a positive mass theorem and Penrose-type inequality of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern mass $m_2$ for the graphic manifold with flat normal bundle.
In this paper, we establish an intrinsic Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula for Finsler manifolds by using the Mathai-Quillen's superconnection formalism, in which no extra vector field is involved. Furthermore, we prove a more general Lichnerowicz formula in this direction through a geometric localization procedure.
We derive the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet Theorem for manifolds with smooth non-degenerate boundary in the pseudo-Riemannian context from the corresponding result in the Riemannian setting by examining the Euler-Lagrange equations associated to the Pfaffian of a complex "metric" on the tangent space and then applying analytic continuation.
We generalise the classical Chern-Gauss-Bonnet formula to a class of 4-dimensional manifolds with finitely many conformally flat ends and singular points. This extends results of Chang-Qing-Yang in the smooth case. Under the assumptions of finite total Q curvature and positive scalar curvature at the ends and at the singularities, we obtain a new Chern-Gauss-Bonnet formula with error terms that can be expressed as isoperimetric deficits. This is the first such formula in a dimension higher than two which allows the underlying manifold to have isolated branch points or conical singularities.
We use the mapping cone for the relative deRham cohomology of a manifold with boundary in order to show that the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet Theorem for oriented Riemannian vector bundles over such manifolds is a manifestation of Lefschetz Duality in any of the two embodiments of the latter. We explain how Thom isomorphism fits into this picture, complementing thus the classical results about Thom forms with compact support. When the rank is odd, we construct, by using secondary transgression forms introduced here, a new closed pair of forms on the disk bundle associated to a vector bundle, pair which …
In this paper we show positive mass theorems and Penrose type inequalities for the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern mass, which was introduced recently in \cite{GWW}, for asymptotically flat CF manifolds and its rigidity.
We give an explicit formula for the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern mass of an asymptotically flat graphical manifold of arbitrary codimension and use it to prove the positive mass theorem and the Penrose inequality for graphs with flat normal bundle.
In this paper we first prove that every differential character can be represented by differential form with singularities. Then we lift the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem for vector bundles to differential characters.
We derive a formula of Chern-Gauss-Bonnet type for the Euler characteristic of a four dimensional manifold-with-boundary in terms of the geometry of the Loewner-Nirenberg singular Yamabe metric in a prescribed conformal class. The formula involves the renormalized volume and a boundary integral. It is shown that if the boundary is umbilic, then the sum of the renormalized volume and the boundary integral is a conformal invariant. Analogous results are proved for asymptotically hyperbolic metrics in dimension four for which the second elementary symmetric function of the eigenvalues of the Scho…
We prove a discrete Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem which states where summing the curvature over all vertices of a finite graph G=(V,E) gives the Euler characteristic of G.
We define a new one form H^A based on the second fundamental tensor H^abA, the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern form can be novelly expressed with this one-form. Using the phi-mapping theory we find that the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern density can be expressed in terms of the delta-function and the relationship between the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem and Hopf-Poincare theorem is given straightforwardly. The topological current of the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem and its topological structure are discussed in details. At last, the Morse theory formula of the Euler characteristic is generalized.
In this paper we introduce a family of center of masses that complement the definition of the family of Gauss-Bonnet-Chern masses by Ge-Wang-Wu and Li-Nguyen. In order to prove the existence and the well-definedness of the center of mass, we use the formalism of double forms of Kulkarni and Labbi. This allows for transparent conceptual proofs, which apply to all known cases of asymptotic invariants of asymptotically flat manifolds.
Under suitable conditions, we show that the Euler characteristic of a foliated Riemannian manifold can be computed only from curvature invariants which are transverse to the leaves. Our proof uses the hypoelliptic sub-Laplacian on forms recently introduced by two of the authors.
In this paper, we prove a local index theorem for the DeRham Hodge-laplacian which is defined by the connection compatible with metric. This connection need not be the Levi-Civita connection. When the connection is Levi-Civita connection, this is the classical local Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem.
We prove the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet Theorem using sigma models whose source supermanifolds have super dimension 0|2. Along the way we develop machinery for understanding manifold invariants encoded by families of 0|n-dimensional Euclidean field theories and their quantization.
In a previous article, we generalised the classical four-dimensional Chern-Gauss-Bonnet formula to a class of manifolds with finitely many conformally flat ends and singular points, in particular obtaining the first such formula in a dimension higher than two which allows the underlying manifold to have isolated conical singularities. In the present article, we extend this result to all even dimensions $n\geq 4$ in the case of a class of conformally flat manifolds.
On an oriented Riemannian manifold, the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula asserts that the Pfaffian of the metric represents, in de Rham cohomology, the Euler class of the tangent bundle. Hence, if the underlying manifold is compact, the integral of the Pfaffian is a topological invariant; namely, the Euler characteristic of the manifold. In this paper we refine a result originally due to Gilkey that characterizes this formula as the only (non-trivial) integral of a differential invariant that is independent of the underlying metric.
We prove that a Gaussian ensemble of smooth random sections of a real vector bundle over compact manifold canonically defines a metric on the bundle together with a connection compatible with it. Additionally, we prove a refined Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem stating that if the bundle and the manifold are oriented, then the Euler form of the above connection can be identified, as a current, with the expectation of the random current defined by the zero-locus of a random section in the above Gaussian ensemble.
In this paper, we proved the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem on moduli space of polarized Kahler manifolds. Using our results, we proved the rationality of the Chern-Weil forms (with respect to the Weil-Petersson metric) on CY moduli. As an application in physics, by the Ashok-Douglas theory, counting the number of flux compactifications of the type IIb string on a Calabi-Yau threefold is related to the integrations of various Chern-Weil forms. We proved that all these integrals are finite (and also rational).
In this paper, we prove the following two results: First, we study a class of conformally invariant operators $P$ and their related conformally invariant curvatures $Q$ on even-dimensional Riemannian manifolds. When the manifold is locally conformally flat(LCF) and compact without boundary, $Q$-curvature is naturally related to the integrand in the classical Gauss-Bonnet-Chern formula, i.e., the Pfaffian curvature. For a class of even-dimensional complete LCF manifolds with integrable $Q$% -curvature, we establish a Gauss-Bonnet-Chern inequality. Second, a finiteness theorem for certain classe…
We prove a Gauss-Bonnet theorem for (finite coverings of) moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces endowed with the McMullen metric. The proof uses properties of an exhaustion of moduli spaces by compact submanifolds with corners and the Gauss-Bonnet formula of Allendoerfer and Weil for Riemannian polyhedra.
For a compact differentiable surface with boundary embedded in $\Bbb R^3$, we give simple proofs of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem, Poincaré-Hopf theorem, and several other integral formulas. We complete all of the proofs without using fundamental or differential forms.
We give a stereological version of the Gauss-Bonnet formula in order to compute the Euler characteristic of a domain with boundary in a smooth orientable surface in R^3, by looking at contacts with a "sweeping" plane.
Given a construction of smooth homotopy class invariants of smooth immersions $M^n\to R^{n+k}$. The particular case of $k=1, n\ge 1$ is a sequence of non-zero integrals, where the $n=2$ term is the Gauss-Bonnet integral
We prove that the Euler form of a metric connection on real oriented vector bundle $E$ over a compact oriented manifold $M$ can be identified, as a current, with the expectation of the random current defined by the zero-locus of a certain random section of the bundle. We also explain how to reconstruct probabilistically the metric and the connection on $E$ from the statistics of random sections of $E$.
We prove a Gauss-Bonnet type formula for Riemann-Finsler surfaces of non-constant indicatrix volume and with regular piecewise smooth boundary. We give a Hadamard type theorem for N-parallels of a Landsberg surface.
We give a short proof of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for a real oriented Riemannian vector bundle $E$ of even rank over a closed compact orientable manifold $M$. This theorem reduces to the classical Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem in the special case when $M$ is a Riemannian manifold and $E$ is the tangent bundle of $M$ endowed with the Levi-Civita connection. The proof is based on an explicit geometric construction of the Thom class for 2-plane bundles.
We prove a version of Gauss-Bonnet theorem in sub-Riemannian Heisenberg space $H^1$. The sub-Riemannian distance makes $H^1$ a metric space and consenquently with a spherical Hausdorff measure. Using this measure, we define a Gaussian curvature at points of a surface S where the sub-Riemannian distribution is transverse to the tangent space of S. If all points of S have this property, we prove a Gauss-Bonnet formula and for compact surfaces (which are topologically a torus) we obtain $\int_S K = 0$.
As an interesting application of the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory and our work on the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern mass (Ge, Wang, Wu), we obtain a positive mass theorem for asymptotically flat graphs in $\R^{n+1}$ under a condition that $R+αL_2$ is non-negative, where $R$ is the scalar curvature, $α\in\R$ a constant and $L_2$ the second Gauss-Bonnet curvature. A Penrose type inequality is also obtained in the case $α>0$.
The aim of this note is to provide an intrinsic proof of the Gauss--Bonnet theorem without invoking triangulations, which is achieved by exploiting complex structures.
The Gauss-Bonnet curvature of order $2k$ is a generalization to higher dimensions of the Gauss-Bonnet integrand in dimension $2k$, as the usual scalar curvature generalizes the two dimensional Gauss-Bonnet integrand. In this paper, we evaluate the first variation of the integrals of these curvatures seen as functionals on the space of all Riemannian metrics on the manifold under consideration. An important property of this derivative is that it depends only on the curvature tensor and not on its covariant derivatives. We show that the critical points of this functional once restricted to metri…
We present a self-contained proof of the Gauss-Bonnet theorem for two-dimensional surfaces embedded in $R^3$ using just classical vector calculus. The exposition should be accessible to advanced undergraduate and non-expert graduate students. It may be viewed as an illustration and exercise in multivariate calculus and a motivation to go deeper into the fields of geometry and topology.
The $(2k)$-th Gauss-Bonnet curvature is a generalization to higher dimensions of the $(2k)$-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet integrand, it coincides with the usual scalar curvature for $k=1$. The Gauss-Bonnet curvatures are used in theoretical physics to describe gravity in higher dimensional space times where they are known as the Lagrangian of Lovelock gravity, Gauss-Bonnet Gravity and Lanczos gravity. In this paper we present various aspects of these curvature invariants and review their variational properties. In particular, we discuss natural generalizations of the Yamabe problem, Einstein metric…
