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Perhaps the simplest way to construct a manifold is the one used in the example above of the circle. First, a subset of is identified, and then an atlas covering this subset is constructed. The concept of manifold grew historically from constructions like this. Here is another example, applying this method to the construction of a sphere:
Flag manifold; Grassmann manifold; Stiefel manifold; Lie groups provide several interesting families. See Table of Lie groups for examples. See also: List of simple Lie groups and List of Lie group topics.
Manifolds in contemporary mathematics come in a number of types. These include: smooth manifolds, which are basic in calculus in several variables, mathematical analysis and differential geometry; piecewise-linear manifolds; topological manifolds. There are also related classes, such as homology manifolds and orbifolds, that resemble manifolds.
The study of manifolds combines many important areas of mathematics: it generalizes concepts such as curves and surfaces as well as ideas from linear algebra and topology. Certain special classes of manifolds also have additional algebraic structure; they may behave like groups, for instance. In that case, they are called Lie Groups.
In mathematics, an algebraic manifold is an algebraic variety which is also a manifold. As such, algebraic manifolds are a generalisation of the concept of smooth curves and surfaces defined by polynomials. An example is the sphere, which can be defined as the zero set of the polynomial x 2 + y 2 + z 2 – 1, and hence is an algebraic variety.
In geometry, if X is a manifold with an action of a topological group G by analytical diffeomorphisms, the notion of a (G, X)-structure on a topological space is a way to formalise it being locally isomorphic to X with its G-invariant structure; spaces with a (G, X)-structure are always manifolds and are called (G, X)-manifolds.