Does every smooth local frame of the tangent bundle correspond to a chart

differential-geometrysmooth-manifoldstangent-bundleVector Fields

Every smooth chart $(U,\phi)$ on a smooth manifold $M$ determines a smooth local frame $U \to TM$ on the tangent bundle, namely $(\partial/\partial x^i)$, where $(x_i)$ are the coordinate functions of $\phi : U \to \mathbb{R}^n$. But is the converse true? Namely, given any smooth local coordinate frame $(\sigma_i) : M \supset V \to TM$, can we construct a chart such that the $\sigma_i$ are partial derivatives of the coordinate functions?

Best Answer

You are right. If you want the statement is true around a neighborhood you should look at @Neal answer instead of mine in that post, which more or less refer to the following theorem.

The necessary and sufficient condition for a smooth frame $\{X_i\}$ to be expressible as a coordinate frame in some smooth chart is that they are a $\textbf{commuting frame}$, i.e. $[X_i,X_j] = 0$ for all $i$ and $j$. This theorem proved in John Lee's $\textit{Introduction to Smooth Manifolds }$ book at Theorem 18.6 here.

So not all local frame expressible as coordinate frame. Only the commuting ones.

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