The Euler characteristic of a transitive Lie algebroid (Q6082526)

\textit{M. F. Atiyah} and \textit{I. M. Singer} [Ann. Math. (2) 87, 484--530 (1968; Zbl 0164.24001)] showed that, by and large, transitive Lie algebroids may be thought of as the infinitesimal counterparts of principal bundles. In the paper under review, the author generalises to a principal bundle \(P(M,G)\) classical vanishing results for the Euler characteristic of a Lie group. To this end, he uses the Atiyah-Singer index theorem on the elliptic complex which defines the associated Lie algebroid cohomology. The main result is that, if \(M\) is compact, then the Euler class of \(P(M,G)\) vanishes unless the Atiyah Lie algebroid of \(P(M,G)\) is \(TM\). Moreover, a Künneth formula is proven.