The adjective abstract has often been applied to differential geometry before, but the abstract differential geometry (ADG) of this article is a form of differential geometry without the calculus notion of smoothness, developed by Anastasios Mallios and others from 1998 onwards.[1]
Instead of calculus, an axiomatic treatment of differential geometry is built via sheaf theory and sheaf cohomology using vector sheaves in place of bundles based on arbitrary topological spaces[2]. Mallios says noncommutative geometry can be considered a special case of ADG, and that ADG is similar to synthetic differential geometry.
Contents |
Mallios and Raptis use ADG to avoid the singularities in general relativity and propose this as a route to quantum gravity[3].
|