In mathematics, the Pontryagin classes, named after Lev Pontryagin, are certain characteristic classes of real vector bundles. The Pontryagin classes lie in cohomology groups with degrees a multiple of four.

Definition

Given a real vector bundle E over M, its k-th Pontryagin class p_k(E) is defined as where: The rational Pontryagin class p_k(E, \Q) is defined to be the image of p_k(E) in, the 4k-cohomology group of M with rational coefficients.

Properties

The total Pontryagin class is (modulo 2-torsion) multiplicative with respect to Whitney sum of vector bundles, i.e., for two vector bundles E and F over M. In terms of the individual Pontryagin classes p_k, and so on. The vanishing of the Pontryagin classes and Stiefel–Whitney classes of a vector bundle does not guarantee that the vector bundle is trivial. For example, up to vector bundle isomorphism, there is a unique nontrivial rank 10 vector bundle E_{10} over the 9-sphere. (The clutching function for E_{10} arises from the homotopy group .) The Pontryagin classes and Stiefel-Whitney classes all vanish: the Pontryagin classes don't exist in degree 9, and the Stiefel–Whitney class w_9 of E_{10} vanishes by the Wu formula. Moreover, this vector bundle is stably nontrivial, i.e. the Whitney sum of E_{10} with any trivial bundle remains nontrivial. Given a 2 k-dimensional vector bundle E we have where e(E) denotes the Euler class of E, and \smile denotes the cup product of cohomology classes.

Pontryagin classes and curvature

As was shown by Shiing-Shen Chern and André Weil around 1948, the rational Pontryagin classes can be presented as differential forms which depend polynomially on the curvature form of a vector bundle. This Chern–Weil theory revealed a major connection between algebraic topology and global differential geometry. For a vector bundle E over a n-dimensional differentiable manifold M equipped with a connection, the total Pontryagin class is expressed as where \Omega denotes the curvature form, and denotes the de Rham cohomology groups.

Pontryagin classes of a manifold

The Pontryagin classes of a smooth manifold are defined to be the Pontryagin classes of its tangent bundle. Novikov proved in 1966 that if two compact, oriented, smooth manifolds are homeomorphic then their rational Pontryagin classes in are the same. If the dimension is at least five, there are at most finitely many different smooth manifolds with given homotopy type and Pontryagin classes.

Pontryagin classes from Chern classes

The Pontryagin classes of a complex vector bundle is completely determined by its Chern classes. This follows from the fact that, the Whitney sum formula, and properties of Chern classes of its complex conjugate bundle. That is, and. Then, this given the relation for example, we can apply this formula to find the Pontryagin classes of a complex vector bundle on a curve and a surface. For a curve, we have""so all of the Pontryagin classes of complex vector bundles are trivial. On a surface, we have""showing. On line bundles this simplifies further since c_2(L) = 0 by dimension reasons.

Pontryagin classes on a Quartic K3 Surface

Recall that a quartic polynomial whose vanishing locus in is a smooth subvariety is a K3 surface. If we use the normal sequence""we can find showing c_1(X) = 0 and. Since [H]^2 corresponds to four points, due to Bézout's lemma, we have the second chern number as 24. Since in this case, we have . This number can be used to compute the third stable homotopy group of spheres.

Pontryagin numbers

Pontryagin numbers are certain topological invariants of a smooth manifold. Each Pontryagin number of a manifold M vanishes if the dimension of M is not divisible by 4. It is defined in terms of the Pontryagin classes of the manifold M as follows: Given a smooth 4 n-dimensional manifold M and a collection of natural numbers the Pontryagin number is defined by where p_k denotes the k-th Pontryagin class and [M] the fundamental class of M.

Properties

Generalizations

There is also a quaternionic Pontryagin class, for vector bundles with quaternion structure.