Chern classes for parabolic bundles (Q1290986)

In this paper, Chern classes for parabolic bundles are defined and various properties of Chern classes of vector bundles are generalized to the parabolic context. Parabolic bundles with respect to an effective divisor were defined by \textit{V. B. Mehta} and \textit{C. S. Seshadri} for Riemann surfaces [Math. Ann. 248, 205-239 (1980; Zbl 0454.14006)] and by \textit{M. Maruyama} and \textit{K. Yokogawa} for higher dimensional varieties [Math. Ann. 293, No.~1, 77-100 (1992; Zbl 0735.14008)]. The last reference also contains the definition of parabolic degree. Taking this notion into account, the author defines the parabolic Chern character (and accordingly all the parabolic Chern classes) of any parabolic bundle. The paper studies some properties of parabolic Chern classes. For these properties, it is always assumed that the parabolic divisor is of normal crossings and that the subsheaves of the parabolic filtration are vector bundles. It is proven that any parabolic Chern class is numerically positive for parabolic ample bundles [a notion introduced by \textit{I. Biswas}, Math. Ann. 307, No.~3, 511-529 (1997; Zbl 0877.14013)]. This is the corresponding statement to a famous result for vector bundles due to \textit{S. Bloch} and \textit{D. Gieseker} [Invent. Math. 12, 112-117 (1971; Zbl 0212.53502)]. The author also identifies all the numerically positive parabolic characteristic polynomials for ample parabolic bundles, generalizing to the parabolic context the theorem of \textit{W. Fulton} and \textit{R. Lazarsfeld} [Ann. Math., II. Ser. 118, 35-60 (1983; Zbl 0537.14009)]. New examples of ample parabolic bundles are provided and it is proven that, under certain additional conditions on the filtration, a parabolic stable bundle with vanishing parabolic Chern classes has the same characteristics as a stable vector bundle with vanishing Chern classes. In the last section, a version for parabolic Higgs bundles of \textit{Y. Kawamata}'s covering lemma for parabolic bundles [Compos. Math. 43, 253-276 (1981; Zbl 0471.14022)] is proven.