An index formula for a bundle homomorphism of the tangent bundle into a vector bundle of the same rank, and its applications

In a previous work, the authors introduced the notion of `coherent tangent bundle', which is useful for giving a treatment of singularities of smooth maps without ambient spaces. Two different types of Gauss-Bonnet formulas on coherent tangent bundles on 22-dimensional manifolds were proven, and several applications to surface theory were given. Let $M^n$ ($n\ge 2$) be an oriented compact $n$-manifold without boundary and $TM^n$ its tangent bundle. Let $\mathcal E$ be a vector bundle of rank $n$ over $M^n$, and $\varphi:TM^n\to \mathcal E$ an oriented vector bundle homomorphism. In this paper, we show that one of these two Gauss-Bonnet formulas can be generalized to an index formula for the bundle homomorphism $\varphi$ under the assumption that $\varphi$ admits only certain kinds of generic singularities. We shall give several applications to hypersurface theory. Moreover, as an application for intrinsic geometry, we also give a characterization of the class of positive semi-definite metrics (called Kossowski metrics) which can be realized as the induced metrics of the coherent tangent bundles.