2005/11/11 by Mihail Cocos, Cocos, Mihail
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #53C05 #Advanced Differential Geometry Research #Differential Geometry (math.DG) #Dynamical Systems (math.DS) #FOS: Mathematics #Geometric Analysis and Curvature Flows #Homotopy and Cohomology in Algebraic Topology
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.math/0511303
openalex publication_date 2005/11/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Geodesically complete affine manifolds are quotients of the Euclidean space through a properly discontinuous action of a subgroup of affine Euclidean transformations. An equivalent definition is that the tangent bundle of such a manifold admits a flat, symmetric and complete connection. If the completeness assumption is dropped, the manifold is not necessarily obtained as the quotient of the Euclidean space through a properly discontinuous group of affine transformations. In fact the universal cover may no longer be the Euclidean space. The main result of this paper states that all compact affine manifolds have 0 Euler characteristic and that the fundamental group of these manifolds is non-trivial.