We determine a nice simple formula for the largest Euclidean space for which there is an orientable n-manifold with a nonimmersion detected by Stiefel-Whitney classes. For Spin manifolds, we prove the analogue of the upper bound and establish the complete answer for n<24 and n=33,34. Results similar to many of these were obtained some 50 years ago, but in a much less tractable form. The sharp results for Spin manifolds require detailed calculations of ko-homology groups of mod-2 Eilenberg-MacLane spaces.
In this article we show that there are at most two integers up to $2(n-k)$, which can occur as the degrees of nonzero Stiefel-Whitney classes of vector bundles over the Stiefel manifold $V_k(\mathbb{R}^n)$. In the case when $n> k(k+4)/4$, we show that if $w_{2^q}(ξ)$ is the first nonzero Stiefel-Whitney class of a vector bundle $ξ$ over $V_k(\mathbb{R}^n)$ then $w_t(ξ)$ is zero if $t$ is not a multiple of $2^q.$ In addition, we give relations among Stiefel-Whitney classes whose degrees are multiples of $2^q$.
We determine the Stiefel-Whitney classes of the second exterior representation and the spin representation of Spin(15), which are useful to calculate the mod 2 cohomology of the classifying space of the exceptional Lie group E_8.
A space $X$ is called $W$-trivial if for every vector bundle $ξ$ over $X$, the total Stiefel-Whitney class $W(ξ)= 1$. In this article we shall investigate whether the suspensions of Dold manifolds, $\s^k D(m,n)$, is $W$-trivial or not.
The cohomology ring of a finite group, with coefficients in a finite field, can be computed by a machine, as Carlson has showed. Here "compute" means to find a presentation in terms of generators and relations, and involves only the underlying (graded) ring. We propose a method to determine some of the extra structure: namely, Stiefel-Whitney classes and Steenrod operations. The calculations are explicitly carried out for about one hundred groups (the results can be consulted on the Internet). Next, we give an application: thanks to the new information gathered, we can in many cases determine …
We prove that the Stiefel-Whitney classes of a moment-angle manifold, not necessarily smooth, are trivial. We also consider Stiefel-Whitney classes of the partial quotient of a moment-angle manifold.
This paper determines which Stiefel-Whitney numbers can be defined for singular varieties compatibly with small resolutions. First an upper bound is found by identifying the F_2-vector space of Stiefel-Whitney numbers invariant under classical flops, equivalently by computing the quotient of the unoriented bordism ring by the total spaces of RP^3 bundles. These Stiefel-Whitney numbers are then defined for any real projective normal Gorenstein variety and shown to be compatible with small resolutions whenever they exist. In light of Totaro's result [Tot00] equating the complex elliptic genus wi…
We describe the Stiefel-Whitney classes (SWCs) of orthogonal representations $π$ of the finite special linear groups $G=\text{SL}(2,\mathbb F_q)$, in terms of character values of $π$. From this calculation, we can answer interesting questions about SWCs of $π$. For instance, we determine the subalgebra of $H^*(G,\mathbb Z/2\mathbb Z)$ generated by the SWCs of orthogonal $π$, and we also determine which $π$ have nontrivial mod $2$ Euler class.
We propose a definition of persistent Stiefel-Whitney classes of vector bundle filtrations. It relies on seeing vector bundles as subsets of some Euclidean spaces. The usual Čech filtration of such a subset can be endowed with a vector bundle structure, that we call a Čech bundle filtration. We show that this construction is stable and consistent. When the dataset is a finite sample of a line bundle, we implement an effective algorithm to compute its persistent Stiefel-Whitney classes. In order to use simplicial approximation techniques in practice, we develop a notion of weak simplicial appro…
Let $(X,c_X)$ be a convex projective surface equipped with a real structure. The space of stable maps $\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{0,k}(X,d)$ carries different real structures induced by $c_X$ and any order two element $τ$ of permutation group $S_k$ acting on marked points. Each corresponding real part $\R_τ\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{0,k}(X,d)$ is a real normal projective variety. As the singular locus is of codimension bigger than two, these spaces thus carry a first Stiefel-Whitney class for which we determine a representative in the case $k=c_1(X)d-1$ where $c_1(X)$ is the first Chern class of $X$. Namely, …
We consider quotients of complex Stiefel manifolds by finite cyclic groups whose action is induced by the scalar multiplication on the corresponding complex vector space. We obtain a description of their tangent bundles, compute their mod p cohomology and obtain estimates for their span (with respect to their standard differentiable structure). We compute the Pontrjagin and Stiefel-Whitney classes of these manifolds and give applications to their stable parallelizability.
Combinatorics, in particular graph theory, has a rich history of being a domain of successful applications of tools from other areas of mathematics, including topological methods. Here, we survey the study of the Hom-complexes, and the ways these can be used to obtain lower bounds for the chromatic numbers of graphs, presented in a recent series of papers \cite{BK03a,BK03b,BK03c,CK1,CK2,K4,K5}. The structural theory is developed and put in the historical context, culminating in the proof of the Lovász Conjecture, which can be stated as follows: For a graph G, such that the complex Hom(C_{2r+1}…
The characteristic rank of a vector bundle $ξ$ over a finite connected $CW$-complex $X$ is by definition the largest integer $k$, $0\leq k\leq \mathrm{dim}(X)$, such that every cohomology class $x\in H^j(X;\mathbb Z_2)$, $0\leq j\leq k$, is a polynomial in the Stiefel-Whitney classes $w_i(ξ)$. In this note we compute the characteristic rank of vector bundles over the Stiefel manifold $V_k(\mathbb F^n)$, $\mathbb F=\mathbb R,\mathbb C,\mathbb H$.
We give a simple proof for the fact that algebra generators of the mod 2 cohomology of classifying spaces of exceptional Lie groups are given by Chern classes and Stiefel-Whitney classes of certain representations.
We construct small covers and quasitoric manifolds over $n$-dimensional simple polytopes which allow proper colorings of facets with $n$ colors. We calculate Stiefel-Whitney classes of these manifolds as obstructions to immersions and embeddings into Euclidean spaces. The largest dimension required for embedding is achieved in the case $n$ is a power of two.
Let $X^k_{m,n}=Σ^k (\mathbb R\mathbb P^m/\mathbb R\mathbb P^n)$. In this note we completely determine the values of $k,m,n$ for which the total Stiefel-Whitney class $w(ξ)=1$ for any vector bundle $ξ$ over $X^k_{m,n}$.
Extending [14], we obtain a complete description of the motivic cohomology with ${\mathbb Z}/2$-coefficients of the Nisnevich classifying space of the spin group $Spin_n$ associated to the standard split quadratic form. This provides us with very simple relations among subtle Stiefel-Whitney classes in the motivic cohomology of Čech simplicial schemes associated to quadratic forms from $I^3$, which are closely related to $Spin_n$-torsors over the point. These relations come from the action of the motivic Steenrod algebra on the second subtle Stiefel-Whitney class. Moreover, exploiting the rela…
Using a combinatorial description of Stiefel-Whitney classes of closed flat manifolds with diagonal holonomy representation, we show that no Hantzsche-Wendt manifold of dimension greater than three does not admit a spin$^c$ structure.
For each integer $d$ at least two, we construct non-spin closed oriented flat manifolds with holonomy group $\mathbb Z_2^d$ and with the property that all of their finite proper covers have a spin structure. Moreover, all such covers have trivial Stiefel-Whitney classes.
In this paper we generalize the notion of regular homotopy of immersions of a closed connected n-manifold into R^{2n-1} to locally generic mappings. The main result is that if n=2 then two mappings with singularities are regularly homotopic if and only if they have the same number of cross-cap (or Whitney-umbrella) singularities. As an application, we get a description of the path-components of the space of those immersions of a surface into R^4 whose projections into R^3 are locally generic.
For a topological space $X$ we study continuous maps $f : X\to \mathbb R^m$ such that images of every pairwise distinct $k$ points are affinely (linearly) independent. Such maps are called affinely (linearly) $k$-regular embeddings. We investigate the cohomology obstructions to existence of regular embeddings and give some new lower bounds on the dimension $m$ as function of $X$ and $k$, for the cases $X$ is $\mathbb R^n$ or $X$ is an $n$-dimensional manifold. In the latter case, some nonzero Stiefel--Whitney classes of $X$ help to improve the bound.
Let h be a Real bundle, in the sense of Atiyah, over a space X. This is a complex vector bundle together with an involution which is compatible with complex conjugation. We use the fact that BU is equipped with a structure of conjugation space, as defined by Hausmann, Holm, and Puppe, to construct equivariant Chern classes in the Z/2-equivariant cohomology of X with twisted integer coefficients. We show that these classes determine the (non-equivariant) Chern classes of h, forgetting the involution on X, and the Stiefel-Whitney classes of the real bundle of fixed points.
It is well-known that odd-dimensional manifolds have Euler characteristic zero. Furthemore orientable manifolds have an even Euler characteristic unless the dimension is a multiple of $4$. We prove here a generalisation of these statements: a $k$-orientable manifold (or more generally Poincaré complex) has even Euler characteristic unless the dimension is a multiple of $2^{k+1}$, where we call a manifold $k$-orientable if the $i^{th}$ Stiefel-Whitney class vanishes for all $0<i< 2^k$ ($k\geq 0$). More generally, we show that for a $k$-orientable manifold the Wu classes $v_l$ vanish for all $l$…
Totally skew embeddings are introduced by Ghomi and Tabachnikov. They are naturally related to classical problems in topology, such as the generalized vector field problem and the immersion problem for real projective spaces. In recent paper Topological obstructions to totally skew embeddings, {totaly skew} embeddings are studied by using the Stiefel-Whitney classes In the same paper it is conjectured that for every $n$-dimensional, compact smooth manifold $M^n$ $(n>1)$, $$N(M^n)\leq 4n-2α(n)+1,$$ where $N(M^n)$ is defined as the smallest dimension $N$ such that there exists a {\em totally ske…
In part I of this work we studied the spaces of real algebraic cycles on a complex projective space P(V), where V carries a real structure, and completely determined their homotopy type. We also extended some functors in K-theory to algebraic cycles, establishing a direct relationship to characteristic classes for the classical groups, specially Stiefel-Whitney classes. In this sequel, we establish corresponding results in the case where V has a quaternionic structure. The determination of the homotopy type of quaternionic algebraic cycles is more involved than in the real case, but has a simi…
