On the Stiefel-Whitney class of the adjoint representation of \(E_8\) (Q1769623)

Let \(\widetilde{E_8}\) be the \(3\)-connected covering space of the simply connected Lie group \(E_8\). Let \(\pi_8: \widetilde{E_8} \to E_8\) be the covering map and \(\pi_8^*: H^*(Be_8) \to H^*(B\widetilde{E_8})\) be the induced map between the \(\mathbb{Z}_2\) cohomology of the classifying spaces. The main result (Theorem 4) computes the images of the \(2^i\)th Stiefel--Whitney class of the adjoint representation of \(E_8\) under \(\pi_8^*\) for \(i\leq7\). The article contains only a sketch of proof; the author postpones the proof to another paper. This sketch is an explicit calculation using an explicit expression for the cohomology rings and some maps, and applying the Steenrod operations.