Stiefel Whitney Classes for Real representations of \mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb{F}_q)

Publication date: 26 November 2020

Abstract: We compute the total Stiefel Whitney class for a real representation

p i

of

m a t h r m {G L}_{2} (m a t h b b F_{q})

, where

q

is odd. The obstruction class of

p i

is defined to be the Stiefel Whitney class of lowest positive degree that does not vanish. We provide an expression for the obstruction class of

p i

in terms of its character values if

d e t p i = 1

.

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