Since the times of Gauss, Riemann, and Poincare, one of the principal goals of the study of manifolds has been to relate local analytic properties of a manifold with its global topological properties. Among the high points on this route are the Gauss-Bonnet formula, the de Rham complex, and the Hodge theorem; these results show, in particular, that the central tool in reaching the main goal of global analysis is the theory of differential forms. This title is a comprehensive introduction to differential forms. It begins with a quick introduction to the notion of differentiable manifolds and...
Since the times of Gauss, Riemann, and Poincare, one of the principal goals of the study of manifolds has been to relate local analytic properties of ...