Talk:Holonomic basis

Rename proposal, to Coordinate basis

A Google search (for "holonomic basis" vs. "coordinate basis") suggests that the latter is by far the more notable term. Sadly, the majority of the first hits for the former are essentially quoting this article. —Quondum 20:01, 31 December 2016 (UTC)

vector on a manifold?

Why is it allowed to formulate "displacement vector between the point P and a nearby point Q" when both points are elements of M, M being a manifold and typically not a vector space?

Once you make a choice of coordinates near P, you can identify points in R^n with displacement vectors on M. Of course, this choice is non-canonical. If you pick a different coordinate chart, then the set of directional derivatives wrt one coordinate system will be related to the directional derivatives of the other system via the jacobian of the transition map. In fact, it is not a coincidence that the non-uniqueness for a basis of the tangent space at a point P runs parallel to the non-uniqueness of coordinates near P. Once you fix a basis for TM at P, one can extend to a smooth frame around P, and then use existence of solutions to ODEs to build a small coordinate neighborhood at P such that the coordinate functions are given by time flowed along integral curves of said extended frame. See Lee, Introduction to Smooth Manifolds for more details. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:4041:5923:3900:65F6:CF82:BFBF:9340 (talk) 03:43, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

What does a holonomic basis do for you?

Why should anyone chose a holonomic basis? The article says, "It is possible to make an association between such a basis and directional derivative operators." Is that why they are useful? But what is that association useful? Are there times when a non-holonomic basis is a better choice? Perhaps the article could address these questions. Acorrector (talk) 18:46, 14 November 2021 (UTC)