Sphere bundle ($S(E)$)

After choosing a fiber metric on a rank-$d$ vector bundle $E\to B$, its sphere bundle consists of the unit vectors and has fiber $S^{d-1}$. Different choices of metric give isomorphic sphere bundles.

For an oriented rank-four real vector bundle $E\to S^4$, its sphere bundle has fibre $S^3$. Let $m=⟨e(E),[S^4]⟩$ be its Euler class evaluated on the orientation class. The Gysin sequence gives integral homology $\mathbb{Z}$ in degrees $0,7$, $\mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z}$ in degree $3$, and a copy of $\mathbb{Z}$ in degree $4$ exactly when $m=0$, with all other groups zero. Here $\mathbb{Z}/0\mathbb{Z}=\mathbb{Z}$. A transition function $v\mapsto q^{k}v{q}^l$ on the unit quaternions has Euler number $k+l$, up to an overall orientation sign: evaluating it at a fixed unit vector gives the power map $q\mapsto q^{k+l}$, whose mapping degree is $k+l$. The same homology calculation follows by applying the Mayer–Vietoris sequence to the two trivializations over the hemispheres.

The unit tangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold $M$ is the sphere bundle of its tangent bundle. Its points are pairs $(x,v)$ with $x\in M$, $v\in T_{x}M$, and $\Vert v\Vert =1$.

On an oriented Riemannian surface, set $\alpha (\xi )=⟨v,d\pi \xi ⟩$, $\theta (\xi )=⟨iv,d\pi \xi ⟩$, and let $\omega$ be the Levi-Civita connection form with $\omega (V)=1$. The dual frame is $(X,H,V)$ andIn a local oriented frame, $\omega =d\vartheta +{\omega }_0$ and $\alpha ,\theta$ are the base coframe rotated through angle $\vartheta$; the torsion-free and curvature equations give these identities. Evaluating exterior derivatives on dual fields yields $[V,X]=H$, $[V,H]=-X$, $[X,H]=KV$.

On an oriented Riemannian surface, the vertical vector field generates positive rotation in each fibre of its unit tangent bundle: $Vf(x,v)={{\partial }_{t}f(x,\cos tv+\sin tiv)|}_{t=0}$. Hence $V(v)=iv$ and $V(iv)=-v$. In the canonical frame, $[V,X]=H$, $[V,H]=-X$ and $[X,H]=KV$.

The positive Liouville volume for the base-orientation/positive-fibre orientation is $\mu ={\pi }^{\ast }{\Omega }_a\wedge \omega$. Its fibre integral is $2\pi {\Omega }_a$, so its total volume is $2\pi \mathrm{Area}(M)$. With the stated coframe convention, $\alpha \wedge d\alpha =-\mu$; the signed contact volume and the positive measure should not be confused. The fields $X,H,V$ preserve this volume by their structure equations.

The real Stiefel manifold $V_k({\mathbb{R}}^n)$ consists of ordered orthonormal $k$-frames in ${\mathbb{R}}^n$. In particular, $V_2({\mathbb{R}}^{m+1})$ is naturally the unit tangent bundle of $S^m$.

For a rank-$n$ Euclidean vector bundle, take its ordered orthonormal $k$-frame bundle and quotient by the symmetric group permuting the $k$ vectors. The whole fiber is generally positive-dimensional. A prescribed global framing selects a finite subcover consisting of the unordered $k$-element subsets of its distinguished frame vectors.

A global ordered framing selects the displayed $\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n}{k}\right)$-sheeted cover inside the unordered Stiefel bundle. It is a trivial cover because the frame labels are global. Selecting subsets of a direct-sum framing decomposes the cover as the disjoint union of fiber products of the two summands' subset covers.

The space of ordered orthonormal complex $k$-frames in ${\mathbb{C}}^n$, for $0\le k\le n$. It is a compact smooth manifold of real dimension $2nk-k^2$. Completing a frame to a unitary basis gives the displayed homogeneous-space description; $V_0$ is a point and $V_n({\mathbb{C}}^n)$ is the unitary group $U(n)$.

Use the complement bundle on a complex Stiefel manifold inductively. If the ring for $V_k$ is exterior with smallest positive degree $2n-2k+1$, the complement bundle has Euler degree $2(n-k)$, in which base cohomology vanishes. Its Euler class is consequently zero. The Gysin ring splitting for an odd-dimensional sphere bundle adds one exterior generator of degree $2(n-k)-1$. The initial base $V_0$ is a point. This gives the full integral cohomology ring and in particular its torsion-freeness. At $k=n$, the unitary group has Poincare polynomial ${\prod }_{j=0}^{n-1}(1+t^{2j+1})$.

The orthogonal complements of the universal frames define a complex vector bundle of rank $n-k$ inside the trivial ${\mathbb{C}}^n$ bundle. The orthogonal projector $I-{\sum }_i{v}_i{v}_i^{\ast }$ is smooth of constant rank, giving local bundle frames. Its underlying real bundle has canonical orientation and rank $2(n-k)$. Its sphere bundle is exactly $V_{k+1}({\mathbb{C}}^n)$, by appending the unit vector in the complement to the frame.

The Euler class of $T{S}^{2n}$ evaluates to $2$. Its Gysin sequence of a sphere bundle givesAll products of positive-degree classes vanish.