Topics: Differential Geometry

Differential Geometry

Differential geometry is a mathematical discipline that uses the methods of differential calculus to study problems in geometry. The theory of plane and space curves and of surfaces in the three-dimensional Euclidean space formed the basis for its initial development in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Since the late nineteenth century, differential geometry has grown into a field concerned more generally with geometric structures on differentiable manifolds. It is closely related with differential topology and with the geometric aspects of the theory of differential equations. Grigori Perelman's proof of the Poincare conjecture using the techniques of Ricci flow demonstrated the power of the differential-geometric approach to questions in topology and highlighted the important role played by the analytic methods.