# Is the addition of a Christoffel symbol and the partial derivative of a vector a tensor?

The partial derivative of a vector $$V^\lambda , _\nu$$ is not a tensor. Neither is a Christoffel symbol $$\Gamma^\lambda _{\mu \nu}$$.

Is the addition of these two objects a tensor? If they were tensors, the addition woulnd't even be defined.

Using $$\Gamma^\lambda _{\mu \nu}=w^\lambda(\partial_\mu e_\nu)$$ how can I prove that $$\partial_\nu V^\lambda+w^\lambda(\partial_\mu e_\nu)$$ is a tensor? It looks like the covariant derivative, wich is a tensor, but it isn't.

I have tried to find the tranformation rule:

$$$$\partial_\gamma V^\alpha+w^\alpha(\partial_\beta e_\gamma)=\frac{\partial x^\nu}{\partial x^\gamma}\frac{\partial}{\partial x^\nu}\frac{\partial x^\alpha}{\partial x^\lambda}V^\lambda+\frac{\partial x^\alpha}{\partial x^\lambda}w^\lambda\left(\frac{\partial x^\mu}{\partial x^\beta}\frac{\partial}{\partial x^\mu}\frac{\partial x^\nu}{\partial x^\gamma}e_\nu\right)$$$$

But I am unsure on how to operate the different derivatives.

• You seem to be adding terms with different index structures?? – Qmechanic Apr 13 at 19:53
• @Qmechanic yes! I thought that that was a result of neither the Christoffel symbol or the derivative of the vector being tensors. Is the addition even possible? – IchVerloren Apr 13 at 19:59
• Have you tried to see how it transforms under coordinate transformation? That will tell you if the thing is a tensor or not... eqn's 5-7 here mathworld.wolfram.com/Tensor.html – N. Steinle Apr 13 at 21:05
• This seems extremely confused, like your last question. You should read a basic introduction to tensors from the beginning before trying to do anything else... – knzhou Apr 13 at 21:05

In your post you are not writing the Christoffel symbol as applied to the field you are deriving in the partial derivative. The covariant derivative would be: $$\nabla_{\mu}V_{\nu}:=\partial_{\mu}V_{\nu}-\Gamma_{\mu\nu}^{\lambda}V_{\lambda}$$ Now if I understand correctly you really mean to sum the three index Christoffel symbol with the two index partial derivative right?
In that case you do not have a tensor. You can see it by proceeding as you tried but fixing the fact that you are changing coordinates so $$x\rightarrow x'$$. The transformation law becomes: $$$$\partial_\gamma V^\alpha+w^\alpha(\partial_\beta e_\gamma)\;\;\rightarrow\;\;\frac{\partial x^\nu}{\partial x'^\gamma}\frac{\partial}{\partial x^\nu}(\frac{\partial x'^\alpha}{\partial x^\lambda}V^\lambda)+\frac{\partial x'^\alpha}{\partial x^\lambda}w^\lambda\frac{\partial x^\mu}{\partial x'^\beta}\frac{\partial}{\partial x^\mu}(\frac{\partial x^\nu}{\partial x'^\gamma}e_\nu)$$$$ Despite you can still see this as a three index object (the first term is simply multiplied by $$I_{\beta}\equiv 1 \;\forall\;\beta$$), you can see that now the spurious second derivatives do not cancel each others and therefore you do not get something that transform as a tensor.