Description
Title: Stiefel-Whitney Classes of Representations
Abstract: Given a compact group G and a real representation pi of G, there
is a sequence of interesting invariants of pi which lie in the group
cohomology of G, called the Stiefel-Whitney classes. The first class gives
the determinant of pi, and the second class is related to the spinoriality
of pi, that is whether it lifts to the spin group. We survey work on this
problem when G is a connected Lie group, and also when G is the symmetric
group. This is joint work with my Ph.D. students Rohit Joshi and Jyotirmoy
Ganguly.