Triality in so(4,4), characteristic classes, D4 and G2 singularities

Abstract: We recall the construction of triality automorphism of so(8) given by E. Cartan and we give a matrix representation for the real form so(4,4). We compute the induced results on the characteristic classes. Paralelly we study the triality automorphism of the singularity D4 (in Arnolds classification of smooth functions) and its miniversal deformation. The similarity with Lie theory leads us to a definition of G2 singularity.