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Smooth structure


In mathematics, a smooth structure on a manifold allows for an unambiguous notion of smooth function. In particular, a smooth structure allows one to perform mathematical analysis on the manifold.

A smooth structure on a manifold M is a collection of smoothly equivalent smooth atlases. Here, a smooth atlas for a topological manifold M is an atlas for M such that each transition function is a smooth map, and two smooth atlases for M are smoothly equivalent provided their union is again a smooth atlas for M. This gives a natural equivalence relation on the set of smooth atlases.

A smooth manifold is a topological manifold M together with a smooth structure on M.

By taking the union of all atlases belonging to a smooth structure, we obtain a maximal smooth atlas. This atlas contains every chart that is compatible with the smooth structure. There is a natural one-to-one correspondence between smooth structures and maximal smooth atlases. Thus, we may regard a smooth structure as a maximal atlas and vice versa.

In general, computations with the maximal atlas of a manifold are rather unwieldy. For most applications, it suffices to choose a smaller atlas. For example, if the manifold is compact, then one can find an atlas with only finitely many charts.

Let and be two maximal atlases on M. The two smooth structures associated to and are said to be equivalent if there is a homeomorphism such that .


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