On the divisibility of characteristic classes of non-oriented surface bundles (Q2378291)

Let \(\mathcal{N}_g\) denote the mapping class group of a non-orientable surface \(S_g\) with genus \(g\), which is the group of components of the diffeomorphism group of \(S_g\). \textit{C. J. Earle} and \textit{J. Eells} in [J. Differ. Geom. 3, 19--43 (1969; Zbl 0185.32901)] have shown that if \(g\geq 3\), the components of \(\text{Diff}(S_g)\) are contractible, so the cohomology of the classifying space \(B\mathcal{N}_g\) (or the group cohomology of \(\mathcal{N}_g\)) can be interpreted as the ring of characteristic classes for \(S_g\)-bundles. In [Invent. Math. 171, No.~2, 389--424 (2008; Zbl 1140.55007)], \textit{N. Wahl} showed a homological stability theorem, saying that if \(l\leq (g-3)/4\) then the cohomology group \(H^l(\mathcal{N}_g)\) is independent of the genus \(g\). One calls this range of degrees the stable range. Together with Wahl's result and that of \textit{S. Galatius, I. Madsen, U. Tillmann} and \textit{M. Weiss} [Acta Math. 202, No.~2, 195--239 (2009; Zbl 1221.57039)], there are characteristic classes \(\xi_i\in H^{4i}(\mathcal{N}_g; {\mathbb Q})\) such that the natural map \[ {\mathbb Q}[\xi_1, \xi_2, \xi_3, \dots]\longrightarrow H^*(\mathcal{N}_g ;{\mathbb Q}) \] is an isomorphism in the stable range. The authors of the paper under review study the divisibility of the above characteristic classes. They show that the classes \(\xi_i \in H^{4i}(\mathcal{N}_g,\mathbb Z)\) are not divisible in the stable range, and also are not divisible in the free quotient \(H^{4i}_{\text{free}}(\mathcal{N}_g,\mathbb Z)\) of \( H^{4i}(\mathcal{N}_g,\mathbb Z)\) in this range.