Obstructions for Clifford Structures on Vector Bundles.
Let ξ be an oriented 8-dimensional spin vector bundle over an 8-complex. In this paper we give necessary and sufficient conditions for ξ to have 4 linearly independent sections or to be a sum of two 4-dimensional spin vector bundles, in terms of characteristic classes and higher order cohomology operations. On closed connected spin smooth 8-manifolds these operations can be computed.
We discuss relations among several invariants of 3-manifolds including Meyer's function, the η-invariant, the von Neumann ρ-invariant and the Casson invariant from the viewpoint of the mapping class group of a surface.
Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of -dimensional oriented vector bundles () over CW-complexes of dimension with prescribed Stiefel-Whitney classes , and Pontrjagin class are found. As a consequence some results on the span of 6 and 7-dimensional oriented vector bundles are given in terms of characteristic classes.
In this paper, we continue the study of the possible cohomology rings of compact complex four dimensional irreducible hyperkähler manifolds. In particular, we prove that in the case b 2=7, b 3=0 or 8. The latter was achieved by the Beauville construction.