We define and study the secondary Chern-Euler class for a general submanifold of a Riemannian manifold. Using this class, we define and study the index for a vector field with non-isolated singularities on a submanifold. As an application, we give conceptual proofs of a result of Chern.

Let $M^m$ be an $m$-dimensional, closed and smooth manifold, equipped with a smooth involution $T\colon M^m \to M^m$ whose fixed point set has the form $F^n \cup F^j$, where $F^n$ and $F^j$ are submanifolds with dimensions $n$ and $j$, $F^j$ is indecomposable and $ n >j$. Write $n-j=2^pq$, where $q \ge 1$ is odd and $p \geq 0$, and set $m(n-j) = 2n+p-q+1$ if $p \leq q + 1$ and $m(n-j)= 2n + 2^{p-q}$ if $p \geq q$. In this paper we show that $m \le m(n-j) + 2j+1$. Further, we show that this bound is \emph{almost} best possible, by exhibiting examples $(M^{m(n-j) +2j},T)$ where the fixed point set of $T$ has the form $F^n \cup F^j$ described above, for every $2 \le j
Keywords:involution, projective space bundle, indecomposable manifold, splitting principle, Stiefel-Whitney class, characteristic number
Category:57R85

Let $\mathcal{A}$ be a line arrangement in the complex projective plane $\mathbb{P}^2$, having the points of multiplicity $\geq 3$ situated on two lines in $\mathcal{A}$, say $H_0$ and $H_{\infty}$. Then we show that the non-local irreducible components of the first resonance variety $\mathcal{R}_1(\mathcal{A})$ are 2-dimensional and correspond to parallelograms $\mathcal{P}$ in $\mathbb{C}^2=\mathbb{P}^2 \setminus H_{\infty}$ whose sides are in $\mathcal{A}$ and for which $H_0$ is a diagonal.

Using weighted Delsarte surfaces, we give examples of $K3$ surfaces in positive characteristic whose formal Brauer groups have height equal to $5$, $8$ or $9$. These are among the four values of the height left open in the article of Yui \cite{Y}.