---
title: "Bott cannibalistic class"
chunk: 1/1
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bott_cannibalistic_class"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T12:04:23.003219+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

In mathematics, the Bott cannibalistic class, introduced by Raoul Bott (1962), is an  element 
  
    
      
        
          θ
          
            k
          
        
        (
        V
        )
      
    
    {\displaystyle \theta _{k}(V)}
  
 of the representation ring of a compact Lie group that describes the action of the Adams operation 
  
    
      
        
          ψ
          
            k
          
        
      
    
    {\displaystyle \psi ^{k}}
  
 on the Thom class 
  
    
      
        
          λ
          
            V
          
        
      
    
    {\displaystyle \lambda _{V}}
  
 of a complex representation 
  
    
      
        V
      
    
    {\displaystyle V}
  
. The term "cannibalistic" for these classes was introduced by Frank Adams.


== References ==


== Further reading ==
Bott, Raoul (1962), "A note on the KO-theory of sphere-bundles", Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 68 (4): 395–400, doi:10.1090/S0002-9904-1962-10819-2, ISSN 0002-9904, MR 0153019