Connections up to homotopy and characteristic classes

Publication date 9 October 2000

Abstract: In this note we clarify the relevance of ``connections up to homotopy to the theory of characteristic classes. We have already remarked cite{Crai} that such connections up to homotopy can be used to compute the classical Chern characters. Here we present a slightly different argument for this, and then proceed with the discussion of the flat (secondary) characteristic classes. As an application, we clarify the relation between the two different approaches to characteristic classes of algebroids (and of Poisson manifolds in particular): we explain that the intrinsic characteristic classes are precisely the secondary classes of the adjoint representation.

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