Stable unextendibility of vector bundles over the quaternionic projective spaces (Q1890210)

Let \(F={\mathbb R}, \;{\mathbb C} \;\text{ or} \;{\mathbb H}\) and let \((B', B)\) denote a pair of spaces with \(B \subset B'\). An \(F\)-vector bundle \(V\) over \(B\) is said to be stably extendible to \(B'\) if there exists an \(F\)-vector bundle \(V'\) over \(B'\) whose restriction to \(B\) is isomorphic to \(V\) as a stable \(F\)-vector bundle. It is an interesting problem to determine whether given vector bundles are stably extendible or not. In this paper the author presents four theorems and one corollary concerning the stable unextendiblity of vector bundles over the quaternionic projective space \({\mathbb H}P^n\). The first two theorems state that the tangent bundle of \({\mathbb H}P^n\) is not stably extendible to \({\mathbb H}P^{n+1}\) for \(n \geq 2\) (Theorem A) and if there exists an immersion \({\mathbb H}P^{2^m-1} \subseteq {\mathbb R}^{2^{m+2}+k-4}\) with \(k \leq 2^{m+2}-1\), then its normal bundle is not stably extendible for \(m \geq 2\) (Theorem B). It is known that \(H^*({\mathbb H}P^n; {\mathbb Z})={\mathbb Z}[x]/(x^{n+1})\) where \(x \in H^4({\mathbb H}P^n; {\mathbb Z})\) denotes the Euler class of the canonial \({\mathbb H}\)-line bundle over \({\mathbb H}P^n\), so that the \(i\)-th Pontrjagin class \(P_i(V)\) of an \({\mathbb H}\)-vector bundle \(V\) over \({\mathbb H}P^n\) can be written as \(P_i(V)=p_i(V)x^i\) where \(p_i(V) \in {\mathbb Z}\). Then the \(n\)-tuple \((p_1(V), \dots, p_n(V))\) is called a Pontrjagin vector of \(V\). The author gives a necessary and sufficient condition for an \(n\)-tuple \((q_1, \dots, q_n)\) to become a Pontrjagin vector of \({\mathbb H}\)-vector bundle over \({\mathbb H}P^n\) (Theorem C). This provides a sufficient condition for an \(r\)-dimensional \({\mathbb H}\)-vector bundle over \({\mathbb H}P^n\) with \(r \leq n\) not to be stably extendible to \({\mathbb H}P^{n+\ell}\) for \(\ell > 0\) (Theorem D) and shows that in particular when \(r=n\) and \(\ell=1\) this condition is also a necessary condition (Corollary E). The author closes with an application of this corollary in which a typical case is given.