[Math] Examples of Stiefel-Whitney classes of manifolds

at.algebraic-topologycharacteristic-classescohomologydg.differential-geometrysmooth-manifolds

Let $M$ by an compact, connected $n$-dimensional manifold without boundary.
Are there any other computable examples of the Stiefel-Whitney class $w(M)$ except for $M=S^m, \mathbb{R}P^m,\mathbb{C}P^m, \mathbb{H}P^m$?

Best Answer

It goes back to Wu in the 1950's that if one can compute the mod 2 cohomology of a manifold, with its Steenrod operations, then one can explicitly compute its Stiefel-Whitney classes, via the Wu formula. See for example the Theorem on page 188 of ``A concise course on algebraic topology'' (no originality claimed, just the quickest reference for me to find).

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