Stiefel-Whitney classes of representations of SL(2,q)

Let \(G\) be a group. Real representations or, equivalently, orthogonal complex representations \(G\) give rise to flat vector bundles over the classifying space \(BG\). Via this construction, one associates Stiefel-Whitney classes \(w_{i}(\pi) \in H^{i}(G,\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})\) to a representation \(\pi\) of \(G\). Their sum \(w(\pi)\), in the group cohomology \(H^{\ast}(G,\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})\), is the total Stiefel-Whitney class of \(\pi\). Let \(G\) be a finite group and let \(H_{SW}^{\ast}(G, \mathbb{Z}/2 \mathbb{Z})\) be the subalgebra of \(H^{\ast}(G,\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})\) generated by Stiefel-Whitney classes \(w_{i}(\pi)\) of orthogonal representations \(\pi\) of \(G\). A subgroup \(K\) detects the \(\mathrm{mod}\) 2 cohomology of \(G\) when the restriction map \(\iota^{\ast}: H^{\ast}(G,\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}) \rightarrow H^{\ast}(K,\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})\) is injective and \(K\) detects Stiefel-Whitney classes if \(\iota^{\ast}\) is injective on \(H_{SW}^{\ast}(G,\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})\). Let \(\mathbb{I}\) be the identity matrix. The main results proven in the paper under review are the following three theorems. Theorem 1.1: Let \(G=\mathrm{SL}(2,q)\) with \(q\) odd. Then the center \(Z\) detects Stiefel-Whitney classes of \(G\). Theorem 1.2: Let \(G=\mathrm{SL}(2,q)\) with \(q\) odd and let \(\pi\) be an orthogonal representation of \(G\). Then the total Stiefel-Whitney class of \(\pi\) is \(w(\pi)=(1+\mathfrak{e})^{r_{\pi}}\) where \(\mathfrak{e}\) is the non-zero element in \(H^{4}(G, \mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z})\) and \(r_{\pi}=\frac{1}{8} \big (\chi_{\pi}(\mathbb{I})-\chi_{\pi}(-\mathbb{I}) \big)\). If \(\pi\) is also irreducible, then \(w(\pi)=1\). Theorem 1.3: Let \((\pi, V)\) be an orthogonal representation of \(G=\mathrm{SL}(2, q)\) with \(q\) even. Then the total Stiefel-Whitney class of \(\pi\) is \(w(\pi)=(1+\mathcal{D})^{m_{\pi}}\) where \(m_{\pi}= \dim_{\mathbb{C}}V/V^{G}\), \(V^{G}\) is the space of \(G\)-fixed vectors in \(V\), and \(\mathcal{D}\) is the sum of the Dickson invariants of \(\mathbb{F}_{q}\), viewed as a \(\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}\)-vector space.

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