A constraint on Chern classes of strictly pseudoconvex CR manifolds (Q2297939)

Let \(E\) be a complex vector bundle. For a multi-index \(K=(k_1, \ldots, k_m)\in\mathbb N^m_+\), we denote by \(c_K(E)\) the cohomology class \(c_{k_1}(E), \ldots, c_{k_m}(E)\). The main result of this note asserts that for a closed strictly pseudoconvex CR manifold \((M, T^{1,0}M)\) of dimension \(\geq 5\), the cohomology class \(c_K(T^{1,0}M)\) vanishes in \(H^{2|K|}(M, \mathbb C)\) for any multi-index \(K\) with \(2|K|\geq n+2\). Although some sharper results are available in some cases, but the author shows via some illustrative examples that this main result is \textit{optimal}. For a closed and oriented manifold \(M\) of dimension \(2n+1\geq 5\) and with a positive co-oriented contact structure \(\xi\), the \(k\)-th Chern class \(c_k(\xi)\in H^{2k}(M, \mathbb Z)\) is defined by using an adapted almost complex structure on \(\xi\). The contact structure \(\xi\) is called holomorphically fillable if \(M\) can be realized as the boundary of a strictly pseudoconvex domain with \(T^{1,0}M=\xi\). In this case, the Chern cohomology class \(c_K(\xi)\) coincides with \(c_K(T^{1,0}M)\) and as a consequence of the above mentioned main result of this paper, it will be a torsion class in \(H^{2|K|}(M, \mathbb Z)\), when the multi-index \(K\) satisfies the inequality \(2|K|\geq n+2\). This corollary can be regarded as a \textit{constraint} on Chern classes.