English

Stiefel Whitney Classes for Real representations of $\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{F}_q)$

Representation Theory 2021-09-10 v2

Abstract

We compute the total Stiefel Whitney class for a real representation π\pi of GL2(Fq)\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{F}_q), where qq is odd. The obstruction class of π\pi is defined to be the Stiefel Whitney class of lowest positive degree that does not vanish. We provide an expression for the obstruction class of π\pi in terms of its character values if detπ=1\det\pi=1.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2011.13245,
  title  = {Stiefel Whitney Classes for Real representations of $\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{F}_q)$},
  author = {Jyotirmoy Ganguly and Rohit Joshi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.13245},
  year   = {2021}
}