Stiefel-Whitney characteristic classes
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1 Definition
Let be a compact smooth -manifold (possibly with boundary). Denote by the Poincaré duality isomorphism. Here for non-orientable the coefficients in cohomology are twisted (by the orientation double covering) and the coefficients in homology are non-twisted. Let be if either or is odd, and if either or is even.
Stiefel defined the homology Stiefel-Whitney class of to be the homology class of a degeneracy subset of a general position collection of tangent vector fields on . Let be the reduction of modulo 2.
Whitney defined the homology normal Stiefel-Whitney class of to be the homology class of a degeneracy subset of a general position collection of normal vector fields on . Let be the reduction of modulo 2.
See e.g. [Fomenko&Fuchs2016, 19.C].
2 References
- [Fomenko&Fuchs2016] A. T. Fomenko and D. B. Fuks, Homotopical Topology. Translated from the Russian. Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 273. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2016. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-23488-5.