Affine Development of Closed Curves in Weitzenbock Manifolds and the Burgers Vector of Dislocation Mechanics
In the theory of dislocations, the Burgers vector is usually defined by referring to a crystal structure. Using the notion of affine development of curves on a differential manifold with a connection, we give a differential geometric definition of the Burgers vector directly in the continuum setting, without making use of an underlying crystal structure.