Chern Class - Properties of Chern Classes

Properties of Chern Classes

Given a complex vector bundle V over a topological space X, the Chern classes of V are a sequence of elements of the cohomology of X. The th Chern class of V, which is usually denoted ck(V), is an element of

H2k(X;Z),

the cohomology of X with integer coefficients. One can also define the total Chern class

Since the values are in integral cohomology groups, rather than cohomology with real coefficients, these Chern classes are slightly more refined than those in the Riemannian example.

Read more about this topic:  Chern Class

Famous quotes containing the words properties of, properties and/or classes:

    A drop of water has the properties of the sea, but cannot exhibit a storm. There is beauty of a concert, as well as of a flute; strength of a host, as well as of a hero.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    A drop of water has the properties of the sea, but cannot exhibit a storm. There is beauty of a concert, as well as of a flute; strength of a host, as well as of a hero.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    There were three classes of inhabitants who either frequent or inhabit the country which we had now entered: first, the loggers, who, for a part of the year, the winter and spring, are far the most numerous, but in the summer, except for a few explorers for timber, completely desert it; second, the few settlers I have named, the only permanent inhabitants, who live on the verge of it, and help raise supplies for the former; third, the hunters, mostly Indians, who range over it in their season.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)