Second Chern numbers of vector bundles and higher adeles

Abstract

We give a construction of the second Chern number of a vector bundle over a smooth projective surface by means of adelic transition matrices for the vector bundle. The construction does not use an algebraic $K$-theory and depends on the canonical $\mathbb{Z}$-torsor of a locally linearly compact $k$-vector space. Analogs of certain auxiliary results for the case of an arithmetic surface are also discussed.