Chern classes for representations of reductive groups

Abstract

Let G be a complex connected reductive group. The representation ring R(G) admits a canonical filtration defined in terms of the lambda-structure. We compute the associated graded ring gr R(G) (over Q) and the Chern classes of a representation -- an easy exercise which we have been unable to find in the literature. As an application we give a simple definition of the characteristic classes of a principal bundle P --> B in gr K(B), and a simple way of computing the Chern classes of the associated vector bundles.