A bundle orientation of a real vector bundle is a compatible choice of vector space orientation in its fibers.
It can be specified by a covering by trivializations
such
that the transition functions are vector
space orientation-preserving. Over a paracompact Hausdorff base
, this is equivalent to the top
exterior power
having a nowhere-zero bundle
section, which specifies an orientation by choosing a positive ray in each fiber. Real projectivization
identifies both rays and therefore does not specify an orientation. A bundle
is called orientable if there exists an orientation. Under this hypothesis on the
base space, a bundle
of bundle
rank
is orientable iff
is a trivial line
bundle (Hatcher 2017, p. 25).
An orientation of the tangent bundle is equivalent to an orientation on the base manifold. Not all bundles are orientable, as can be seen by the tangent bundle of the Möbius strip. The nontrivial line bundle on the circle is also not orientable.