In mathematics, a vector-valued differential form on a manifold M is a differential form on M with values in a vector space V. More generally, it is a differential form with values in some vector bundle E over M. Ordinary differential forms can be viewed as R-valued differential forms.

An important case of vector-valued differential forms are Lie algebra-valued forms. (A connection form is an example of such a form.)

Let M be a smooth manifold and E → M be a smooth vector bundle over M. We denote the space of smooth sections of a bundle E by Γ(E). An E-valued differential form of degree p is a smooth section of the tensor product bundle of E with Λ^p(T ^∗M), the p-th exterior power of the cotangent bundle of M. The space of such forms is denoted by

${\displaystyle \Omega ^{p}(M,E)=\Gamma (E\otimes \Lambda ^{p}T^{*}M).}$

Because Γ is a strong monoidal functor,^[1] this can also be interpreted as

${\displaystyle \Gamma (E\otimes \Lambda ^{p}T^{*}M)=\Gamma (E)\otimes _{\Omega ^{0}(M)}\Gamma (\Lambda ^{p}T^{*}M)=\Gamma (E)\otimes _{\Omega ^{0}(M)}\Omega ^{p}(M),}$

where the latter two tensor products are the tensor product of modules over the ring Ω⁰(M) of smooth R-valued functions on M (see the seventh example here). By convention, an E-valued 0-form is just a section of the bundle E. That is,

${\displaystyle \Omega ^{0}(M,E)=\Gamma (E).\,}$

Equivalently, an E-valued differential form can be defined as a bundle morphism

${\displaystyle TM\otimes \cdots \otimes TM\to E}$

which is totally skew-symmetric.

Let V be a fixed vector space. A V-valued differential form of degree p is a differential form of degree p with values in the trivial bundle M × V. The space of such forms is denoted Ω^p(M, V). When V = R one recovers the definition of an ordinary differential form. If V is finite-dimensional, then one can show that the natural homomorphism

${\displaystyle \Omega ^{p}(M)\otimes _{\mathbb {R} }V\to \Omega ^{p}(M,V),}$

where the first tensor product is of vector spaces over R, is an isomorphism.^[2]

Let E → M be a smooth vector bundle of rank k over M and let π : F(E) → M be the (associated) frame bundle of E, which is a principal GL_k(R) bundle over M. The pullback of E by π is canonically isomorphic to F(E) ×_ρ R^k via the inverse of [u, v] →u(v), where ρ is the standard representation. Therefore, the pullback by π of an E-valued form on M determines an R^k-valued form on F(E). It is not hard to check that this pulled back form is right-equivariant with respect to the natural action of GL_k(R) on F(E) × R^k and vanishes on vertical vectors (tangent vectors to F(E) which lie in the kernel of dπ). Such vector-valued forms on F(E) are important enough to warrant special terminology: they are called basic or tensorial forms on F(E).

Let π : P → M be a (smooth) principal G-bundle and let V be a fixed vector space together with a representation ρ : G → GL(V). A basic or tensorial form on P of type ρ is a V-valued form ω on P which is equivariant and horizontal in the sense that

1. ${\displaystyle (R_{g})^{*}\omega =\rho (g^{-1})\omega \,}$ for all g ∈ G, and
2. ${\displaystyle \omega (v_{1},\ldots ,v_{p})=0}$ whenever at least one of the v_i are vertical (i.e., dπ(v_i) = 0).

Here R_g denotes the right action of G on P for some g ∈ G. Note that for 0-forms the second condition is vacuously true.

Example: If ρ is the adjoint representation of G on the Lie algebra, then the connection form ω satisfies the first condition (but not the second). The associated curvature form Ω satisfies both; hence Ω is a tensorial form of adjoint type. The "difference" of two connection forms is a tensorial form.

Given P and ρ as above one can construct the associated vector bundle E = P ×_ρ V. Tensorial q-forms on P are in a natural one-to-one correspondence with E-valued q-forms on M. As in the case of the principal bundle F(E) above, given a q-form ${\displaystyle {\overline {\phi }}}$ on M with values in E, define φ on P fiberwise by, say at u,

${\displaystyle \phi =u^{-1}\pi ^{*}{\overline {\phi }}}$

where u is viewed as a linear isomorphism ${\displaystyle V{\overset {\simeq }{\to }}E_{\pi (u)}=(\pi ^{*}E)_{u},v\mapsto [u,v]}$. φ is then a tensorial form of type ρ. Conversely, given a tensorial form φ of type ρ, the same formula defines an E-valued form ${\displaystyle {\overline {\phi }}}$ on M (cf. the Chern–Weil homomorphism.) In particular, there is a natural isomorphism of vector spaces

${\displaystyle \Gamma (M,E)\simeq \{f:P\to V|f(ug)=\rho (g)^{-1}f(u)\},\,{\overline {f}}\leftrightarrow f}$.

Example: Let E be the tangent bundle of M. Then identity bundle map id_E: E →E is an E-valued one form on M. The tautological one-form is a unique one-form on the frame bundle of E that corresponds to id_E. Denoted by θ, it is a tensorial form of standard type.

Now, suppose there is a connection on P so that there is an exterior covariant differentiation D on (various) vector-valued forms on P. Through the above correspondence, D also acts on E-valued forms: define ∇ by

${\displaystyle \nabla {\overline {\phi }}={\overline {D\phi }}.}$

In particular for zero-forms,

${\displaystyle \nabla$ :\Gamma (M,E)\to \Gamma (M,T^{*}M\otimes E)} .

This is exactly the covariant derivative for the connection on the vector bundle E.^[3]

Siegel modular forms arise as vector-valued differential forms on Siegel modular varieties.^[4]