[Math] concrete examples of tangent bundles of smooth manifolds for standard spaces

differential-geometrydifferential-topologymanifolds

I'm having trouble visualizing what the topology/atlas of a tangent bundle $TM$ looks like, for a smooth manifold $M$. I know that
$$\dim(TM)=2\dim(M).$$

Do the tangent bundles of the following spaces have any "known form", i.e. can be constructed (up to diffeomorphism) from known spaces $\mathbb{R}^n$, $\mathbb{S}^n$, $\mathbb{P}^n$, $\mathbb{T}^n$ via operations $\times$, $\#$, $\coprod$?

  • $T(\mathbb{S}^2)=?$
  • $T(\mathbb{T}^2)=?$
  • $T(\mathbb{T}^2\#T^2)=?$
  • $T(k\mathbb{T}^2)=?$, $\;\;\;k\in\mathbb{N}$ ($k$-fold connected sum $\#$)
  • $T(\mathbb{P}^2)=?$
  • $T(\mathbb{P}^2\#\mathbb{P}^2)=?$
  • $T(k\mathbb{P}^2)=?$, $\;\;\;k\in\mathbb{N}$ ($k$-fold connected sum $\#$)
  • $T(\mathbb{S}^n)=?$
  • $T(\mathbb{T}^n)=?$
  • $T(\mathbb{P}^n)=?$

($\mathbb{S}^n$ … n-sphere, $\mathbb{T}^n$ … $n$-torus $\mathbb{S}^1\times\ldots\times\mathbb{S}^1$, $\mathbb{P}^n$ … real projective $n$-space, $\#$ … connected sum)

I'm making these examples up, so if there are more illustrative ones, please explain those.

BTW, I know that $T(\mathbb{S}^1)=\mathbb{S}^1\times\mathbb{R}$ by visually thinking about it.

P.S. I'm just learning about these notions…

ADDITION: I just realized that all Lie groups have trivial tangent bundle, so $T(\mathbb{T}^n)\approx\mathbb{T}^n\!\times\!\mathbb{R}^n$.

Best Answer

If you want to describe tangent bundles, the appropriate language is classifying spaces.

A vector bundle $\mathbb R^k \to E \to B$ over a space $B$ is described by a homotopy-class of map

$$B \to Gr_{\infty,k}$$

where $Gr_{\infty,k}$ is the space of all $k$-dimensional vector subspaces of $\oplus_\infty \mathbb R$.

So for example, the tangent bundle of $S^2$ is a $2$-dimensional vector bundle over $S^2$, so described by a map

$$S^2 \to Gr_{\infty,2}$$

$Gr_{\infty,2}$ as a space would be called $B(O_2)$, the classifying space of the Lie group $O_2$, meaning that it is the quotient of a contractible space by a free action of $O_2$ (think of the associated Stiefel space). So an element of $\pi_2 Gr_{\infty,2}$ is equivalent (via the homotopy long exact sequence) to an element of $\pi_1 O_2$, which is isomorphic to $\mathbb Z$.

i.e. 2-dimensional vector bundles over $S^2$ are described by an integer.

There's another way to see the above construction. Decompose $S^2$ into the union of two discs, the upper and lower hemisphere. Via pull-backs this decomposes $TS^2$ into (up to an isomorphism) $D_u \times \mathbb R^2$ and $D_l \times \mathbb R^2$ where $D_u$ and $D_l$ are the upper and lower hemi-spheres respectively. $\partial D_u = \partial D_l = S^1$. So there's a gluing map construction

$$ TS^2 = (D_u \times \mathbb R^2) \cup (D_l \times \mathbb R^2) $$

There's is a map describing how point on $\partial D_l \times \mathbb R^2$ have to be glued to points on $\partial D_u \times \mathbb R^2$ and it has the form

$$(z,v) \longmapsto (z,f_z(v))$$

where

$$f : S^1 \to O_2$$

The homotopy-class of this map is again described by an integer. These are the same two integers. A fun calculation shows you it's two, the Euler characteristic.

The above story is worked-out in more detail in Steenrod's book on fibre bundles. Also Milnor and Stasheff.

By-the-way, many people have trouble initially thinking about tangent bundles. They're fairly delicate objects.

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