Regular submanifold in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ is locally a graph

differential-geometryproof-verificationsmooth-manifolds

I would like to prove the following claim. I think I have proved it, but I am not sure my proof is correct.

Claim: Let $S$ be a regular submanifold of dimension 1 of $\mathbb{R}^{2}$. Then for each point $p$ in $S$, there exists a neighborhood $V$ of $p$ such that on $V\cap S$ is a graph of some smooth function of $x$ or $y$. To be more precise, there exist an open rectangle $V=I\times J$ containing p and a smooth function either $f:I\rightarrow J$ or $f:J\rightarrow I$ such that $V\cap S=\left\{ (x,f(x))\mid x\in I\right\}$ or $V\cap S=\left\{ (f(y),y)\mid y\in J\right\}$.

My attempt: Let us denote by x, y the standard coordinate on $\mathbb{R}^{2}$.

Since $S$ is a regular submanifold dimension dimension 1 of $\mathbb{R}^{2}$, there exists a chart about $(U,\phi )=(U,x_1, x_2)$ about $p$ such that $U\cap S=\left\{(x,y)=0\in U\mid x_2(x,y)=0\right\}$. Now consider the real valued function $x_2:U\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$. Its Jacobian matrix with respect to the chart $(U,\phi )$ is $$\left[\begin{array}{cc}
\partial x_{2}/\partial x_{1} & \partial x_{2}/\partial x_{2}\end{array}\right]=\left[\begin{array}{cc}
0 & 1\end{array}\right],$$ so $x_2$ has rank 1 at each point on $U$. Hence the Jacobian matrix of $x_2$ relative to our normal chart $(U,x,y)$ also has rank 1, that is, either $\partial x_2/\partial x \neq 0$ or $\partial x_2/\partial y \neq 0$. Without loss of generality we may assume $\partial x_2/\partial y \neq 0$. Then implicit function theorem tells us that there exist an open rectangle $V=I\times J$ containing p and contained in U and a smooth function $f:I\rightarrow J$ such that for $(x,y)$ in $V$,$$x_{2}(x,y)=0\iff y=f(x).$$
Then we have that $$V\cap S=V\cap U \cap S=\left\{(x,y)\in V\mid x_2(x,y)=0\right\}=\left\{(x,y)\in V\mid y=f(x)\right\},$$
as claimed.

My Question: Is my proof correct? Are there more sophisticated proofs? Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

Your proof is correct in addition to being good. I would like to remark that using mostly the same tools you can prove the stronger statement "Every submanifold $X\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ is locally expressible as a graph". Here's the problem spelled out in Guillemin & Pollack p.19.

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