What does it mean by “The differential of a map is independent of coordinate charts”

smooth-manifolds

We know that the differential is represented by the Jacobian matrix $[\partial F^i/\partial x^j(p)]$, so it definitely depends on the choice of coordinates $x^j$. But the statement in question is written in Tu's introduction to smooth manifolds in the discussion of regular level set theorem. Can somebody please explain what that statement mean?

Best Answer

Quick answer:

The differential of a map associate a vector $df[v]$ to any vector $[v]$, and that vector $df[v]$ depends only on $v$, not on the coordinate system.

Detailed discussion:

What is a map? A map $f:M\to \mathbb R^n$ associates to any point $x\in M$ a vector $f(x)$. The value $f(x)$ depends only on the point, not on local coordinates.

What is the differential of a map? The differential of a map is not a function from $M$ to $\mathbb R^n$. One usual way to define the differential of a function $f:M\to \mathbb R^n$ is the following:

$f$ is differentiable at $x\in M$ if there exists a linear map $L$ so that $$f(x+\epsilon v)=f(x)+\epsilon L(v)+o(\epsilon)$$

In other words, if $f$ is approximable by a linear map at first order. So, now look at $L$. Who is $L$? It is a linear map bur from where to where? The origin vector space is the tangent space of $M$ at point $x$, usually denoted $T_xM$, and the target space is the tanget space at $f(x)$. In the present case, we can canonically identity the tangent space at $f(x)$ with $\mathbb R^n$ (but if you have $f:M\to N$ you have to take $T_{f(x)}N$). So $$L\in\hom(T_xM,\mathbb R^n)$$.

The map $L$ is called the differential of $f$ at $x$ and it is usually denoted by $d_xf$.

Now, it is a general linear algebra fact that if you have two finite dimensional vector spaces $V,W$ then, for any choices of basis $B_V,B_W$ of $V$ and $W$, you can associate to any $F\in\hom(V,W)$ the matrix of $F$ in those chosen basis. The linear map $F$ exists independently on $B_V,B_W$: it is the matrix that changes when you change coordinates.

Well, for $df$ is the same: the linear map $d_xf:T_xM\to \mathbb R^n$ does not depend on coordinates, the Jacobian matrix --- which describes $d_xf$ as matrix --- does indeed depend on coordinates.