194 Two-Form

An antisymmetric multilinear mapping on ordered pairs of vectors that is used to form integrals over two-dimensional domains.

definition (2-form) A bilinear, antisymmetric, real-valued function of two vector inputs, \(\boldsymbol{\omega}: \mathbf{V} \times \mathbf{V} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}\), which satisfies the following conditions for all vectors and scalars:

  • (Bilinearity) \(\boldsymbol{\omega}(a\mathbf{u} + b\mathbf{u}', \mathbf{v}) = a \cdot \boldsymbol{\omega}(\mathbf{u}, \mathbf{v}) + b \cdot \boldsymbol{\omega}(\mathbf{u}', \mathbf{v})\) and \(\boldsymbol{\omega}(\mathbf{u}, a\mathbf{v} + b\mathbf{v}') = a \cdot \boldsymbol{\omega}(\mathbf{u}, \mathbf{v}) + b \cdot \boldsymbol{\omega}(\mathbf{u}, \mathbf{v}')\).
  • (Antisymmetry) \(\boldsymbol{\omega}(\mathbf{u}, \mathbf{v}) = -\boldsymbol{\omega}(\mathbf{v}, \mathbf{u})\).

where

  • \(\mathbf{V}\) is a real vector space.
  • \(\mathbb{R}\) is the set of real numbers.
  • \(\boldsymbol{\omega}\) is a 2-form.
  • \(\mathbf{u}, \mathbf{u}', \mathbf{v}, \mathbf{v}'\) are vectors in \(\mathbf{V}\).
  • \(a, b\) are scalars.

194.1 Elementary Example

194.1.1 Simple

A two-form is antisymmetric on ordered pairs of vectors.

\[ \omega : V \times V \rightarrow \mathbb{R} \]

\[ V = \{ e_{1},\ e_{2},\ e_{3} \} \]

\[ \omega(e_{1},e_{2}) = 1,\quad \omega(e_{2},e_{1}) = -1,\quad \omega(e_{1},e_{1}) = 0 \]

where

  • \(\omega\) is the two-form.