English

Rigid secondary characteristic classes

Algebraic Topology 2024-03-15 v1

Abstract

We construct families of non-trivial universal rigid secondary classes for foliations, and then discuss their application to prove that foliations are not homotopic. An observation of Lawson about the non-triviality of the normal Pontrjagin classes of foliations is extended, and then used to construct new families of examples of foliations with non-trivial rigid secondary classes. Examples are given of (abstractly constructed) foliations of compact manifolds with homotopic tangent bundles, but which are not homotopic as foliations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2403.09371,
  title  = {Rigid secondary characteristic classes},
  author = {Steven Hurder},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.09371},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T15:20:04.229Z