Calculating the integral of a $1$-form

differential-formsdifferential-geometrymanifolds

The following is a question from an exercise sheet for a course on manifolds that I am taking:

Let $\omega=\frac{x\,\text{d}y-y\,\text{d}x}{x^2+y^2}$ be a $1$-form on $\mathbb R^2$, with cartesian coordinates $x,y$. Calculate $\int_{\gamma}\omega$, where $\gamma$ is the unit circle, $\gamma(t)=(\cos(t),\sin(t))$.

I assume that the domain of $\gamma$ is $[0,2\pi]$.

I know a way to do this is to work out the pull-back $\gamma^*\omega=\lambda\,\text{d}t$, where $t$ is the $\mathbb R$-coordinate and $\lambda:[0,2\pi]\to\mathbb{R}$ is a smooth function. Then $\int_{\gamma}\omega = \int_0^{2\pi}\lambda(t)\,\text{d}t$.

After calculating the pull-back I got $((\gamma^*\omega)(t))(v)=(\cos(t)\,\text{d}y-\sin(t)\,\text{d}x)(-v\sin(t),v\cos(t))=v$.

How do I get this in the form $\lambda\,\text{d}t$? To be honest I'm not even sure what $\text{d}t$ even is in this context.

Best Answer

If $\eta = dy$, then the pull-back is given by $\gamma^*\eta = \gamma^*(dy) = d(\gamma^* y) = d(\sin(t)) = \cos(t) dt$, so the differential is included when taking the pull-back. In general, the pull-back of a $k$-form will be another $k$-form.

To compute $\gamma^* \omega$, you can use the other linearity properties of the pull-back. If I'm not mistaken, you should find that $\gamma^* \omega = dt$, so the final integral is easy to compute.

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