Characteristic classes and transversality (Q876508): Difference between revisions

This paper defines Stiefel-Whitney classes and Chern classes for vector bundles \(\xi \) by looking at the singular set of a generic bundle morphism of a trivial bundle into \(\xi .\) The singular set is realized as the image of a closed manifold and the Poincaré dual of the fundamental homology class of that manifold is the desired characteristic class.