A geometric perspective on the Piola identity in Riemannian settings

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The Piola identity div cof ∇ f=0 is a central result in the mathematical theory of elasticity. We prove a generalized version of the Piola identity for mappings between Riemannian manifolds, using two approaches, based on different interpretations of the cofactor of a linear map: one follows the lines of the classical Euclidean derivation and the other is based on a variational interpretation via Null-Lagrangians. In both cases, we first review the Euclidean case before proceeding to the general Riemannian setting.