Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2016
We shall consider a Hermitian n-vector bundle E over a complex manifold X. When X is compact (without boundary), S.S. Chern defined in his paper [3] the Chern classes (the basic characteristic classes of E) Ĉi(E), i = 1, · · ·, n, in terms of the basic forms Φi on the Grassmann manifold H(n, N) and the classifying map f of X into H(n, N). Moreover he proved ([3], [4]) that if Ek denotes the k-general Stiefel bundle associated with E, the (n — k + 1)-th Chern class Ĉn-k+1(E) coincides with the characteristic class C(Ek) of Ek defined as follows: Let K be a simplicial decomposition of X and K2(n-k)+1 the 2(n — k) + 1 — shelton of K.