Geometry What Makes Riemannian Geometry by Do Carmo Essential for Grad Students?

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Manfredo Do Carmo's "Riemannian Geometry" is a graduate-level textbook that requires a background in basic differential geometry, topology, calculus 3, and linear algebra. The book is structured to provide a comprehensive introduction to differentiable manifolds, Riemannian metrics, affine connections, geodesics, curvature, Jacobi fields, isometric immersions, and various theorems related to complete manifolds and spaces of constant curvature. While it is noted for its motivational approach and coverage of topics, it is less rigorous than other texts, such as Lee's, and lacks many diagrams. The problems presented in the book serve as mini-lessons, though caution is advised against looking at hints, as they often reveal solutions. The text is particularly suitable for those familiar with Do Carmo's earlier work, "Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces," and is appreciated for its leisurely tone, making complex concepts more accessible.

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Table of Contents:
Code:
[LIST]
[*] Preface
[*] How to use this book
[*] Differentiable Manifolds
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] Differentiable manifolds; tangent space
[*] Immersions and embeddings; examples
[*] Other examples of manifolds. Orientation
[*] Vector fields; brackets. Topology of manifolds
[/LIST]
[*] Riemannian Metrics
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] Riemannian Metrics
[/LIST]
[*] Affine Connections; Riemannian Connections
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] Affine connections
[*] Riemannian connections
[/LIST]
[*] Geodesics; Convex Neighborhoods
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] The geodesic flow
[*] Minimizing properties of geodesics
[*] Convex neighborhoods
[/LIST]
[*] Curvature
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] Curvature
[*] Sectional curvature
[*] Ricci curvature and scalar curvature
[*] Tensors on Riemannian manifolds
[/LIST]
[*] Jacobi Fields
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] The Jacobi equation
[*] Conjugate points
[/LIST]
[*] Isometric Immersions
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] The second fundamental form
[*] The fundamental equations
[/LIST]
[*] Complete Manifolds; Hopf-Rinow and Hadamard Theorems
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] Complete manifolds; Hopf-Rinow Theorem
[*] The Theorem of Hadamard
[/LIST]
[*] Spaces of Constant Curvature
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] Theorem of Cartan on the determination of the metric by means of the curvature
[*] Hyperbolic space
[*] Space forms
[*] Isometries of the hyperbolic space; Theorem of Liouville
[/LIST]
[*] Variations of Energy
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] Formulas for the first and variations of energy
[*] The theorems of Bonnet-Myers and of Synge-Weinstein
[/LIST]
[*] The Rauch comparison theorem
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] The theorem of Rauch
[*] Applications of the Index Lemma to immersions
[*] Focal points and an extension of Rauch's Theorem
[/LIST]
[*] The Morse Index Theorem
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] The Index Theorem
[/LIST]
[*] The Fundamental Group of Manifolds of Negative Curvature
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] Existence of closed geodesics
[/LIST]
[*] The Sphere Theorem
[LIST]
[*] Introduction
[*] The cut locus
[*] The estimate of the injectivity radius
[*] The Sphere Theorem
[*] Some further developments
[/LIST]
[*] References
[*] Index
[/LIST]
 
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This book is not as rigorous as Lee's book on the same subject and doesn't have many diagrams but it has a very nice motivation for each chapter, covers more topics, and has problems that are pretty much mini lessons in and of themselves (but beware don't look at the hints whatever you do because they are basically the solutions xD). If you are already well acquainted with a lot of smooth manifold theory then just use Lee's book on the same subject and maybe use this book for the problems. It has a noticeably leisurely tone.
 
This is an excellent book on Riemannian Geometry. It is very similar to Lee's masterpiece, but most leisurely. If you went through the previous book by Do Carmo: "Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces", then you should have no problem with this book. I do wish that Do Carmo used the language of differential forms more.
 
Many years ago, as the internet was coming of age, I burned over 500 pounds of technical manuals. I realized I can look things up on the internet faster than I can find something in a technical manual. And just about anything I might need could be found online. But letting go of my several shelves worth of college text and other science books is another matter. I can't bring myself to get rid of them but there is very little if anything I can't find online now. Books are heavy and a pain...

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