Compute the exterior product of $n$ copies of $\omega=dx_1 \wedge dx_2+\cdots+dx_{2n-1}\wedge dx_{2n}$

575 Views Asked by At

Let $\omega$ be the $2$-form in $\mathbb{R}^{2n}$ given by $$\omega=dx_1 \wedge dx_2+dx_3\wedge dx_4+\cdots dx_{2n-1}\wedge dx_{2n}$$ Compute the exterior product of $n$ copies of $\omega$.

(Chapter 1, Exercise 7 in Differential Forms and Applications by Manfredo P. do Carmo)

The wording of the problem is kind of difficult for me to understand, but I suppose that the exercise asks us to calculate $\omega \wedge \cdots \wedge \omega$.

So, I think the only way one can get a non-zero coefficient is that if we permute the parentheses $(dx_1 \wedge dx_2)$ up to $(dx_{2n-1}\wedge dx_{2n})$. There are $n!$ such permutations. Since each permutation can be arranged to $dx_1\wedge dx_2 \wedge dx_3 \wedge dx_4 \wedge \cdots \wedge dx_{2n-1}\wedge dx_{2n}$ with an even number of transpositions, we always get $+1$ as the coefficient of the differential form. So, the answer should be

$$\omega\wedge\cdots\wedge\omega=\color{green}{n!}\,dx_1\wedge dx_2 \wedge dx_3\wedge dx_4 \wedge \cdots \wedge dx_{2n-1}\wedge dx_{2n}$$

Is that right? If I write my argument exactly like here, would it be considered a complete calculation and receive full points in an exam of differential manifolds?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

1
On BEST ANSWER

Your argument is correct, except for the fact that you need to justify why each of your permuted pairs of $dx_{i}\wedge dx_{i+1}$ when wedged together form $dx_1\wedge\cdots\wedge dx_{2n}$ without a sign. This is because: given forms $\alpha,\beta$ of degrees $k,\ell$ respectively, $$\alpha\wedge\beta=(-1)^{k\ell} \beta\wedge \alpha. $$ In particular, here $\deg(\alpha)=\deg(\beta)=2$ so that $$ (dx_{i}\wedge dx_{i+1})\wedge (dx_j\wedge dx_{j+1})=(-1)^4 (dx_j\wedge dx_{j+1})\wedge (dx_i\wedge dx_{i+1})=(dx_j\wedge dx_{j+1})\wedge (dx_i\wedge dx_{i+1})$$ for any choice of $i\ne j$ (both even).