Projective modules over smooth real affine varieties (Q2509019)

The article under review completes a project envisioned by a group including the authors regarding projective modules over real affine varieties. One of the earliest papers in this direction is by \textit{S. M. Bhatwadekar} and \textit{R. Sridharan} [Invent. Math. 136, No. 2, 287--322 (1999; Zbl 0949.14005)]. The question being dealt with is the following: If \(A\) is a smooth affine algebra over the reals of dimension \(n\geq 2\) and \(P\) is a projective module over \(A\) of rank \(n\) with its \(n\)-th Chern class \(c_n(P)=0\) what further restrictions are necessary for \(P\) to split off a free direct summand? The question was answered by \textit{M.~P.~Murthy} [Ann. Math. (2) 140, No. 2, 405--434 (1994; Zbl 0839.13007)] when \(A\) is an affine algebra over an algebraically closed field, deciding that no further restrictions were necessary. Of course over the reals, one does need further restrictions. In the above mentioned paper of Bhatwadekar and Sridharan, they proved that the vanishing of the \(n\)-th Chern class is sufficient even over the reals if \(n\) is odd and the canonical bundle of \(A\) as well as the determinant of \(P\) are trivial. In this paper, the authors give a complete and satisfactory answer to the above question.