Note on the characteristic rank of vector bundles

Abstract We define the notion of characteristic rank, charrankX(ξ), of a real vector bundle ξ over a connected finite CW-complex X. This is a bundle-dependent version of the notion of characteristic rank introduced by Július Korbaš in 2010. We obtain bounds for the cup length of manifolds in terms of the characteristic rank of vector bundles generalizing a theorem of Korbaš and compute the characteristic rank of vector bundles over the Dold manifolds, the Moore spaces and the stunted projective spaces amongst others.