A Giambelli-type formula for subbundles of the tangent bundle (Q952940)

To a generic \(n\)-dimensional sub-bundle \({\mathcal V}\) of the tangent bundle \(TM\) of a manifold \(M\) one can associate degeneracy loci \(\Sigma_{r}({\mathcal V}), r = (r_{1} \leq r_{2} \leq \cdots \leq r_{k})\) corresponding to points at which the subspace \({\mathcal V}^{j}(x) \subset TM(x)\) spanned by all commutators of length \(\leq j\) of vector fields tangent to \(\mathcal V\) at \(x\) has dimension less than or equal to \(r_{j}\). By making a transversality assumption (that follows in many cases from codimension restrictions) the authors are able to calculate the \({\mathbb Z}_{2}\)-cohomology classes of \(M\) that are dual to the degeneracy loci \(\Sigma_{r}({\mathcal V})\). In an appendix the authors give a Mathematica program for calculating the Chern classes of homogeneous components of free Lie algebra bundles.