Join product of generators of homotopy groups of the Stiefel manifolds of 5-frames and 6-frames (Q1646406)

The existence of a \(k\)-field on a smooth oriented manifold \(M\) (i.e., the inequality \(\mathrm{span}(M)\geq k\)) is equivalent to the existence of a \(k\)-field on \(M\) with finite singularities and trivial Poincaré-Hopf index. This index is an element of the homotopy group \(\pi_{m-1}(V_{m,k})\), where \(m\) is the dimension of \(M\) and \(V_{m,k}\) is the real Stiefel manifold of orthonormal \(k\)-frames in \(\mathbb R^m\). If \(F\hookrightarrow M\longrightarrow B\) is a smooth fiber bundle, where all three spaces are smooth oriented manifolds (of dimensions \(t\), \(t+n\) and \(n\), respectively), then a \(k\)-field with finite singularities \(w\) on \(M\) arises from such fields \(u\) and \(v\) on \(F\) and \(B\), respectively. It was shown in [\textit{N. de Souza Cardim} et al., Topology Appl. 136, No. 1--3, 275--291 (2004; Zbl 1058.57020)] that for the Poincaré-Hopf indices one has the equation: \[ \mathrm{ind}(w)=\mathrm{ind}(u)*\mathrm{ind}(v), \] where \(*:\pi_{t-1}(V_{t,k})\otimes\pi_{n-1}(V_{n,k})\rightarrow\pi_{t+n-1}(V_{t+n,k})\) is the intrinsic join product. In the paper under review, the authors describe this join product for \(k=5\) and \(k=6\) (for \(2\leq k\leq 4\) this was done in [loc. cit.]). They present tables for the join product of generators of the appropriate homotopy groups, and for a \(k\)-field with finite singularities \(w\) on a smooth, closed, oriented manifold \(M\), \(\mathrm{ind}(w)\) is given in terms of these generators with coefficents being some characteristic numbers of \(M\).