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> [!definition] Definition. ([[second fundamental form]])
> Consider a [[Riemannian manifold|Riemannian]] [[embedded submanifold]] $(M, \iota^{*} g) \subset_{\iota} (N,g)$. The [[tangent bundle]] $TN$ [[direct sum|splits]] [[pullback of a vector bundle|along]] $M$ as the [[orthogonal direct sum of modules|orthogonal direct sum]] $TN |_{M}=TM \oplus (TM)^{\perp},$
> where $(TM)^{\perp}=\nu_{M \subset N}$ denotes the [[normal bundle]] of $M$ in $N$. If $X \in \Gamma(TN |_{M})$ is a [[vector field]] on $N$ along $M$, we write $X=\underbrace{ X^{\perp} }_{ \in \Gamma(\nu_{M \subset N}) }+\underbrace{ X^{T} }_{ \in \Gamma(TM) }$
> [[orthogonal projection|for its decomposition]] into components [[normal bundle|normal]] and tangential to $M$. [[partial covariant derivative|The]] [[Levi-Civita connection]] $\nabla^{N}: \Gamma(TN) \times \Gamma(TN) \to \Gamma(TN)$ on $N$ decomposes thus according to the **Gauss formula** $\nabla^{N}_{X} Y=\textcolor{Thistle}{\underbrace{ (\nabla^{N}_{X}Y )^{\perp} }_{ =: \mathrm{II}(X, Y) }} +\textcolor{Skyblue}{\underbrace{ (\nabla_{X}^{N}Y)^{T} }_{ = \nabla _{X}^{M} Y }} ,$
> where the identification of $\textcolor{Skyblue}{(\nabla_{X}^{N}Y)^{T}}$ with $\textcolor{Skyblue}{\nabla_{X}^{M}Y}$ implicitly extends $X,Y \in \Gamma(TM)$ arbitrarily to vector fields on the whole of $N$.[^1] The $\nu_{M \subset N}$-[[differential form with values in a vector bundle|valued]] [[symmetric power|symmetric]] $(0,2)$-[[tensor product of vector bundles|tensor field]] $\textcolor{Thistle}{\mathrm{I I}}\in \operatorname{Sym}^{2}( T^{*} M ) \otimes \nu_{M \subset N}$,[^2] $\begin{align}
> \textcolor{Thistle}{\mathrm{I I}: \Gamma(TM) \times \Gamma(TM) } &\textcolor{Thistle}{ \to \Gamma(\nu_{M \subset N})} \\
> \textcolor{Thistle}{(X, Y) } & \textcolor{Thistle}{\mapsto } \nabla_{X}^{N} Y - \textcolor{Skyblue}{\nabla_{X}^{M}Y}
> \end{align}$
> is called the **second fundamental form of $M \subset N$**. It measures the discrepancy between the ambient connection $\nabla^{N}$ restricted to the [[embedded submanifold|submanifold]] $M$ and the [[embedded submanifold|submanifold]] $M