This chapter presents some elements of differential geometry, the ‘vector’ version of Euclidean geometry in curvilinear coordinates. In doing so, it provides an intrinsic definition of the covariant derivative and establishes a relation between the moving frames attached to a trajectory introduced in Chapter 2 and the moving frames of Cartan associated with curvilinear coordinates. It illustrates a differential framework based on formulas drawn from Chapter 2, before discussing cotangent spaces and differential forms. The chapter then turns to the metric tensor, triads, and frame fields as well as vector fields, form fields, and tensor fields. Finally, it performs some vector calculus.
A certain derivative in fibred Riemannian spaces, and its applications to vector fields