Milnor-Wood inequalities for products (Q1954159)

A topological manifold \(M\) of dimension \(n\) is said to satisfy a Milnor-Wood inequality with constant \(c\) if for every \textit{flat} oriented \(\mathbb{R}^n\)-vector bundle \(\xi\) over \(M\), the inequality \(|\chi(\xi)| \leq c\cdot |\chi(M)|\) holds. The smallest such constant is called the Milnor-Wood constant and denoted by \(MW(M)\). There is also a universal version for a simply connected manifold \(X\) as \[ \widetilde{MW}(X) := \sup\{ MW(M) : M \text{ is a closed quotient of }X\}. \] This paper proves the product formulas for the Milnor-Wood constants in the forms of \[ \begin{aligned} MW(M_1\times M_2) &= MW(M_1) \cdot MW(M_2),\\ \widetilde{MW}(X_1 \times X_2) &= \widetilde{MW}(X_1) \cdot \widetilde{MW}(X_2), \quad\text{for }X_1, X_2\text{ Hadamard}. \end{aligned} \] As a consequence, a stable version of the generalized Chern conjecture is established. An example of infinite Milnor-Wood constant is also given.