Author Description

De Rham cohomology is the cohomology of differential forms. This book offers a self-contained exposition to this subject and to the theory of characteristic classes from the curvature point of view. It requires no prior knowledge of the concepts of algebraic topology or cohomology. The first 10 chapters study cohomology of open sets in Euclidean space, treat smooth manifolds and their cohomology and end with integration on manifolds. The last 11 chapters cover Morse theory, index of vector fields, Poincare duality, vector bundles, connections and curvature, Chern and Euler classes, and Thom isomorphism, and the book ends with the general Gauss-Bonnet theorem.