Symplectic characteristic classes. (Q1769633)

Summary: We present a new proof of the fact that the universal symplectic classes \(d_j(\mathbb{Z})\in H^{2j}(\text{Sp}(\mathbb{Z}),\mathbb{Z})\) have infinite order. This proof uses only techniques from group cohomology. In order to obtain this result, we determine the representations \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\to\text{U}((p-1)/2)\) whose associated representation \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\to\text{Sp}(p-1,\mathbb{R})\) factors, up to conjugation, through a representation \(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\to\text{Sp}(p-1,\mathbb{Z})\).