DIFFERENTIAL GEOMETRY ATTACKS THE TORUS

William Schulz
Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011

1. INTRODUCTION
This is a pdf showing computations of Differential Geometry quantities using
the Torus as example.
No advantage is taken of the particular qualities of the torus; the calculations are done as they would be for any surface, but of course have simpler
results because the surface is simple. We make use of the embedding at the
beginning to get the metric coefficients (gij ) and then proceed in a Riemannian
manner. For the torus enthusiast I have added a section at the end that treats
the normal vector and uses it to find the Gaussian Curvature.

2. NOTATION AND METRIC COEFFICIENTS

We begin by parametrizing the torus by longitude and latitude as usual. The
torus is parametrized by which is the angle going round the big sweep of the
torus from 0 to 2 and by which is the angle going around the little waist of
the torus, also from 0 to 2. The parametrization is
~x(, ) =< (R + r cos ) cos , (R + r cos ) sin , r sin >
Remember that for systematic computation purposes we set the parameters
u1 = and u2 = . This order guarantees that the normal vector will point
outward.
Next we compute the unit tangent vectors:
~e1

~
x
u1

= < (R + r cos ) sin , (R + r cos ) cos ,

~e2

~
x
u2

= < r sin cos ,

r sin sin ,

>

r cos >

Next is to find the matrix of metric coefficients gij = ei ej . These are

easily found to be
g11

=
=

e1 e1 = (R + r cos )2 sin2 + (R + r cos )2 cos2 + 0

(R + r cos )2

g12

=
=

e1 e2 = (R + r cos )r(sin sin cos cos sin sin )

0

g22

=
=

e2 e2 = r2 (sin2 cos2 + sin2 sin2 + cos2 )

r2

In matrix form this is

(gij ) =

(R + r cos )2
0

0
r2

We will also need the inverse matrix


1
(R+r cos )2
(g ij ) = (gij )1 =
0


0
1
r2

CONNECTION AND CURVATURE FORMS

We first want to compute the Christoffel symbols for which we need the basic
formulas
1  gik
gjk
gij 
ij|k =
+

2 uj
ui
uk
and
ijk = g im jk|m
From these we get, remembering that ijk = ikj ,
11|1

11|2

12|1

12|2

22|1

22|2

1 g11
=0
2 u1
g12
1  g12
+
2 u1
u1

1 g11
g21
+
2 u2
u1
g22
1  g12
+
2 u2
u1

g21
1 g21
+
2 u2
u2
1 g22
=0
2 u2

g11 
= (R + r cos )r sin
u2
g12 
= (R + r cos )r sin

u1

g12
=0

u2

g22
=0

u1

Then
111

g 1m 11|m = g 11 11|1 = 0

211

g 2m 11|m = g 22 11|2 =

=
112

=
=

1
(R + r cos ) sin
((R + r cos )r sin ) =
r2
r
g 1m 12|m = g 11 12|1 =


r sin
1

(R
+
r
cos
)r
sin

=
(R + r cos )2
(R + r cos )

212

g 2m 12|m = g 22 12|2 = 0

122

g 1m 22|m = g 11 22|1 = 0

222

g 2m 22|m = g 22 22|2 = 0
2

For future purposes we place these in matrices:

1 =

(ij1 )

111
211

and
2 = (ij2 ) =

121
221


112
212

(R+r cos ) sin

r

122
222

r sin
R+r
cos
0

r sin
R+r
cos
0

0
0

Now we want the connection one forms. These are defined by

ji = ijk duk
or in matrix form by
(ji )

111
211

121
221

du +

112
212

122
222

du2

which explicitly for the sphere gives

(ji )

0
(R+r cos ) sin
r

or
(ji )

r sin
R+r
cos
0

r sin
R+r
cos d
(R+r cos ) sin
d
r

d +

r sin
R+r
cos
0

r sin
R+r
cos d
0

0
0

Next we want to compute the Riemann Curvature Tensor Form which is given
by
= d +
As the calculations are gross and the intermediate results of almost no interest,
they will be relegated to an Appendix to this section. The final result is
!
r cos
0
R+r
cos

= d + =
d d
cosr (R + r cos )
0
Recalling that here the matrix entries of is


R1 1 12 R2 1 12
=
d d
R1 2 12 R2 2 12
we can read off the values of the Riemann Curvature Tensor as
R1 1 12 = 0
R1 2 12 = cosr (R + r cos )

r cos
R2 1 12 = R+r
cos
2
R2 12 = 0

We can now get the Gaussian Curvature from the good old standard formula of
Gauss
g2m R1 m12
K=
det(gij )
3

which here gives us

=

g22 R1 2 12
det(gij )

)
(R + r cos )
r2 ( cos
r
r2 (R + r cos )2
cos
r(R + r cos )

=
=

It is amusing to compute the curvatura integra at this point.

Z 2 Z 2
Z
q
cos
det(gij) dd
K dS =
r(R + r cos )
T2
0
0
Z 2 Z 2
cos
=
r(R + r cos )dd
r(R
+
r cos )
0
0
Z 2 Z 2
Z 2
=
cos dd = 2
cos d = 0
0

which is the result we expect from the Gauss-Bonnet theorem.

APPENDIX: Calculation of the Riemann Curvature Tensor
Recall that the curvature form is given by
= 1 d + 2 d
where
1 =

(ij1 )

111
211

and
2 = (ij2 ) =
To compute d we need
r sin 


R + r cos

121
221


112
212

(R+r cos ) sin

r

122
222

r sin
R+r
cos
0

r sin
R+r
cos
0

0
0

(R + r cos )(r cos ) (r sin )(r sin )

(R + r cos )2
r(R cos + r)
=
(R + r cos )2
=

and
 (R + r cos ) sin 

1
(R cos + r(cos2 sin2 ))
r

so we have

d =

0
r1 (R cos + r(cos2 sin2 )))
4

r(R cos +r)

(R+r cos )2

d d

Note the reversal of signs because the straightforward application of d to

results in d d which is the wrong order.
Next we compute . Recall that
= 1 d + 2 d
so that

= (1 d + 2 d) (1 d + 2 d)
= (1 2 2 1 ) d d

So we need 1 2 and 2 1
1 2 =

(R+r cos ) sin

r

=
2 1 =

r sin
R+r
cos
0


0
0

0
sin2


0
0

0
sin2

r sin
R+r
cos
0

r 2 sin2
(R+r cos )2

0
2

0
0

r sin
R+r
cos
0

0
0

(R+r cos ) sin

r

so we have
=

!

r sin
R+r
cos
0

r sin
(R+r
cos )2
0

d d

To put d and together we need

r2 sin2
r(R cos + r)

(R + r cos )2
(R + r cos )2

=
=
=
=

rR cos + r2 r2 sin2
(R + r cos )2
rR cos + r2 cos2
(R + r cos )2
r cos (R + r cos )
(R + r cos )2
r cos
(R + r cos )

so that we finally have

= d + =

0
cos
r (R + r cos )

r cos
R+r cos

d d

4.

The NORMAL VECTOR AND QUANTITIES ASSOCIATED WITH IT

Recall that the parametrization of the surface is

~x(, ) =< (R + r cos ) cos , (R + r cos ) sin , r sin >
with tangent vectors e~1 and e~2 given by
~e1

~
x
u1

= < (R + r cos ) sin , (R + r cos ) cos ,

~e2

~
x
u2

= < r sin cos ,

r sin sin ,

>

r cos >

The normal vector ~n is given by

~n

~x
~x

1
u
u2
= < (R + r cos )r cos cos , (R + r cos )r sin cos , (R + r cos )r sin >
= (R + r cos )r < cos cos , cos sin , sin >

and its length, which also gives the multiplier in the area element for the torus,
is
|~n|2

=
=

|~n| =

(R + r cos )2 r2 cos2 cos2 + cos2 sin2 + sin2

(R + r cos )2 r2
(R + r cos )r

This gives a unit tangent vector

n
=< cos cos , cos sin , sin >
Recall the standard formula
e~i
= e~k kij + n
bij
uj
We wish to compute the bij . This is easy for donuts, because it is so easy to
take derivatives of n
. We obviously have
bij =

e~i
n

uj

Since e~i n
= 0, we can rewrite this as
bij = ~
ei

uj

We need
n

= < cos sin , cos cos , 0 >

= < sin cos , sin sin , cos >
6

Now we have
b11

=
=
=

b21

=
=

b22

=
=

and thus

(R + r cos ) sin2 cos + (R + r cos ) cos2 cos + 0
(R + r cos ) cos
n

b12 = e~2

r sin cos cos sin r sin sin cos cos + 0 = 0
n

e~2

r sin2 cos2 + r sin2 sin2 r cos2 = r
e~1

(bij ) =

(R + r cos ) cos 0
0
r

With this we can find the Gaussian Curvature which relates the infinitesmal
area on the unit sphere to the infinitesmal area on the surface via the Gauss
Map given by n
:
K=

det(bij )
cos
r((R + r cos ) cos
=
=
2
2
det(gij )
r (R + r cos )
r(R + r cos )