covariantly constant one form

572 Views Asked by At

Let $v$ be a vector field. We say that $v$ is covariantly constant iff

\begin{equation} \nabla v=0, \end{equation} where $\nabla v= (\partial_j v^i+\Gamma^i_{jk} v^k) \ \partial_i \otimes dx^j$, i.e. the total covariant derivative of $v$ is zero. Now let $v=\omega^{\sharp}$ be a rised one-form. Therefore \begin{equation} \nabla v=\nabla(\omega^{\sharp})=\ldots \end{equation} is there a way to simplify this expression? I would like that expresion to be in terms of $\omega$. I've tried simply $\nabla \omega = 0$, but it doesn't work.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

I'm not sure what you mean by "it doesn't work". It works, since you have the metric (hence musical isomorphism) is parallel.

Start with the Leibniz rule: $$ \begin{align*} X(\omega(Y))&=(\nabla_X\omega)(Y)+\omega(\nabla_XY)\\ X\langle v,Y\rangle&=\langle\nabla_Xv,Y\rangle+\langle v,\nabla_XY\rangle \end{align*} $$ Equating them gives $$ (\nabla_X\omega)(Y)=\langle\nabla_Xv,Y\rangle $$ so $\nabla_Xv=(\nabla_X\omega)^\sharp$, i.e., $\nabla(\omega^\sharp)=(\nabla\omega)^\sharp$.