Showing papers in "Proceedings of The London Mathematical Society in 1961"

On Formulae of Thom and Wu

Abstract: 1. RECENTLY, in preparing a set of lectures on characteristic classes, I had occasion to consider the formulae of Thorn and Wu (10) which relate Stiefel-Whitney classes to Steenrod squares. Briefly, they are as follows. Let M be a compact differentiate w-manifold, not necsssarily orientable, with fundamental class n e Hn(M; Z2). Then there is a unique class VteH'iM; Z2) such that (Sq'x, fx} = (vtx, fx} for each x e H\"-'(M; Z2); and the Stiefel-Whitney classes wk e H (M; Z2) satisfy «•» = I