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18 votes
4 answers
1k views

Analogy between Stiefel-Whitney and Chern classes

There is a clear similarity between Stiefel-Whitney and Chern classes, if one replaces base field $\mathbb R$ with $\mathbb C$, coefficient ring $\mathbb Z/2$ with $\mathbb Z$ and scales the grading ...
Troshkin Michael's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
927 views

Chern classes of complex vector bundle

I'm reading characteristic classes form the book Differential forms in Algebraic Topology by Bott and Tu. The Chern classes are defined as follows: $E\xrightarrow{\rho} M$ is a vector bundle and $E_p$...
SUDEEP PODDER's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
777 views

A binary operation on vector bundles that adds Chern classes?

Let $E$ and $F$ be two complex vector bundles over a space $X$. There's a fairly well-known binary operation called the direct sum, written $E\oplus F$, which has the property that its first Chern ...
John Greenwood's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

Chern classes via degeneracy loci

According to book of Eisenbud-Harris Page 332 and the following summary http://pbelmans.ncag.info/blog/2014/10/09/what-are-chern-classes/ one can describe Chern classes in terms of degeneracy loci. ...
Mohammad Farajzadeh-Tehrani's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
330 views

characteristic classes of tangent bundle of 2-nd unordered configuration space

Given a (real or almost complex) manifold $M$, Let the 2-nd unordered configuration space be the quotient space $$ B(M,2)=(M\times M\setminus\ \Delta)/\ \mathbb{Z}_2 $$ where $$ \Delta=\{(m,m)\mid m\...
QSR's user avatar
  • 2,223
7 votes
0 answers
202 views

Bundles over Grassmanian with given top Chern class

So, I have been working on Chern classes for my master thesis and apparently (My proofs could be wrong and a few things are still vague) I was able to give a construction method and exhibit, via ...
Temitope.A's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
961 views

Computing the Chern class of $S^6$ [closed]

I am trying to calculate the Chern class of the tangent bundle of the sphere $S^6$. I am told that this is an interesting case, since $S^6$ is not a complex manifold, but it has an almost complex ...
Jānis Lazovskis's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

How does one go from Chern--Weil to cohomology classes on BGL(n,C)?

Let's assume we start with Chern--Weil theory in the following form: Given a manifold $M$ and a complex vector bundle $V$ over $M$, we can equip $V$ with a $\mathfrak g\mathfrak l_n(\mathbb C)$ ...
John Pardon's user avatar
  • 18.7k
25 votes
2 answers
2k views

If the total Chern class of a vector bundle factors, does it have a sub-bundle?

Motivation: $T_{\mathbb P^2}$ isn't an extension of line bundles Here's a trick to show that the tangent bundle $T$ of $\mathbb P^2$ is not an extension of line bundles. If it were, we would have a ...
Anton Geraschenko's user avatar