The computation of characteristic classes of lattice gauge fields (Q2639383)

In the authors' words `we examine the problem of computing characteristic classes of lattice gauge fields with values in GL(p,C), for arbitrary \(p'\). Their solution in summary is to start with a gauge field u on a triangulation of a space X. If u is sufficiently `continuous', it is a `parallel transport function'. This is then used to construct a classifying map from X into BGL(p,C). Standard methods now define characteristic classes. The question of how to explicitly compute representatives for these characteristic classes is considered for U(1), SU(2) and SU(3).