Abstract. Let F p ∈ GL(3) be the plastic deformation from the multiplicative decomposition in elasto-plasticity. We show that the geometric dislocation density tensor of Gurtin in the form Curl[F p ]· (F p ) T applied to rotations controls the gradient in the sense that pointwise Mathematics Subject Classification. 74A35, 74E15, 74G65, 74N15, 53AXX, 53B05.