On Chern classes of tensor products of vector bundles

Abstract: We present two formulas for Chern classes of the tensor product of two vector bundles. In the first formula we consider a matrix containing Chern classes of the first bundle and we take a polynomial of this matrix with Chern classes of the second bundle as coefficients. The determinant of this expression equals the Chern polynomial of the tensor product. In the second formula we express the total Chern class of the tensor product as resultant of two explicit polynomials with coefficient involving Chern classes of each vector bundles. This approach leads to determinantal formulas for the total Chern class of the second symmetric and alternating product of a vector bundle.