Metastable complex vector bundles over complex projective spaces

Abstract

We apply Weiss calculus to compute the number of topological complex vector bundles of rank $n-2$ with vanishing Chern classes over $\mathbb{C}P^n$ for $n>3$, as given by the list $1, 1, 12, 2, 1, 3, 2, 2, 3, 1, 4, 6, 1, 1, 6, 2, 1, 3, 4, 2, 3, 1, 2, 6$, where the $i$-th entry in this list is the number of such bundles whenever $n$ is congruent to $i$ modulo $24$, starting with $i = 0$. Similarly, the number of rank $n-1$ bundles with vanishing Chern classes over $\mathbb{C}P^n$ for $n>2$ is $2$ when $n$ is odd and $1$ when $n$ is even.