Understanding the Parallel Transport Problem in Riemannian Geometry

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The discussion revolves around Problem 4 from Do Carmo's Riemannian Geometry, focusing on the conditions for parallel transport of a vector field along a curve on a surface in R^3. The user seeks clarification on demonstrating that a vector field V is parallel if and only if its derivative dV/dt is perpendicular to the tangent space T_{c(t)}. They plan to use the formula for the covariant derivative and are uncertain about proving that a specific term vanishes when dotted with a vector. Additionally, they inquire if others solved Problem 3 before tackling Problem 4. The conversation highlights the complexities of understanding parallel transport in Riemannian geometry.
drgigi
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Hi!
I've finally decided to tackle a diff geom book, but I'm having trouble with this Problem 4/Chapter 2 from Do Carmo's Riemannian Geometry:

Let M^2\subset R^3 be a surface in R^3 with induced Riemannian metric. Let c:I\rightarrow M be a differentiable curve on M and let V be a vector field tangent to M along c; V can be thought of as a smooth function V:I\rightarrow R^3, with V(t)\in T_{c(t)}M.

a)show that V is parallel if and only if dV/dt is perpendicular to T_{c(t)}\subset R^3 where dV/dt is the usual derivative of V:I\rightarrow R^3

b) hopefully I can handle myself. will come back if not! :)

So I guess the plan is to use
DV/dt=(dv^k/dt + \Gamma^k_{ij} v^j dx^i/dt) X_k=0
and dot it with some vector u^iX_i. If I can show that the second term in Dv/dt dotted with this u is zero the problem is done, but I don't see why that should be true..
if I dot X_i with X_j i get \delta_{i,j}, right? what then?

any hints would be great! Thanks!
 
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And did you solve Problem 3 before getting to Problem 4?
 

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