= James Simons
{c}
<James Simons> worked on <differential geometry> and geometric invariants. With <Shiing-Shen Chern>, he introduced the secondary characteristic forms now associated with <Chern-Simons forms>.<Characteristic forms and geometric invariants by Shiing-Shen Chern and James Simons>[Original byline, introduction and equation 3.1]{ref}
The construction produces a form whose exterior derivative is a characteristic curvature form. The introduction explains how a search for a combinatorial formula for a number obtained from a <Pontryagin class> led to an interesting boundary term. That term became a geometric object in its own right, illustrating how an obstruction in one calculation can generate a new invariant.<Characteristic forms and geometric invariants by Shiing-Shen Chern and James Simons>[Introduction and Proposition 3.2]{ref}
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