Stiefel–Whitney class

In mathematics, in particular in algebraic topology and differential geometry, the Stiefel–Whitney classes are a set of topological invariants of a real vector bundle that describe the obstructions to constructing everywhere independent sets of sections of the vector bundle. Stiefel–Whitney classes are indexed from 0 to n, where n is the rank of the vector bundle. If the Stiefel–Whitney class of index i is nonzero, then there cannot exist ${\displaystyle (n-i+1)}$ everywhere linearly independent sections of the vector bundle. A nonzero nth Stiefel–Whitney class indicates that every section of the bundle must vanish at some point. A nonzero first Stiefel–Whitney class indicates that the vector bundle is not orientable. For example, the first Stiefel–Whitney class of the Möbius strip, as a line bundle over the circle, is not zero, whereas the first Stiefel–Whitney class of the trivial line bundle over the circle, ${\displaystyle S^{1}\times \mathbb {R} }$, is zero.

The Stiefel–Whitney class was named for Eduard Stiefel and Hassler Whitney and is an example of a ${\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} /2\mathbb {Z} }$-characteristic class associated to real vector bundles.

In algebraic geometry one can also define analogous Stiefel–Whitney classes for vector bundles with a non-degenerate quadratic form, taking values in etale cohomology groups or in Milnor K-theory. As a special case one can define Stiefel–Whitney classes for quadratic forms over fields, the first two cases being the discriminant and the Hasse–Witt invariant (Milnor 1970).