Inspired by a remarkable work of Félix, Halperin and Thomas on the asymptotic estimation of the ranks of rational homotopy groups, and more recent works of Wu and the authors on local hyperbolicity, we prove two asymptotic formulae for torsion rank of homotopy groups, one using ordinary homology and one using $K$-theory. We use these to obtain explicit quantitative asymptotic lower bounds on the torsion rank of the homotopy groups for many interesting spaces after suspension, including Moore spaces, Eilenberg-MacLane spaces, complex projective spaces, complex Grassmannians, Milnor hypersurfaces and unitary groups.
In this paper, we study the stable homotopy types of $\mathbf{F}^4_{n(2)}$-polyhedra, i.e., $(n-1)$-connected, at most $(n+4)$-dimensional polyhedra with 2-torsion free homologies. We are able to classify the indecomposable $\mathbf{F}^4_{n(2)}$-polyhedra. The proof relies on the matrix problem technique which was developed in the classification of representaions of algebras and applied to homotopy theory by Baues and Drozd.
We provide a calculational method for rational stable equivariant homotopy theory for a torus G based on the homology of the Borel construction on fixed points. More precisely we define an abelian torsion model, A_t(G) of finite injective dimension, a homology theory \piAt_* taking values in A_t(G) based on the homology of the Borel construction, and a finite Adams spectral sequence Ext_{A_t(G)}^{*,*}(\piAt_*(X), \piAt_*(Y)) ==> [X,Y]^G_* for rational G-spectra X and Y.
Let $X$ be a $4$-dimensional toric orbifold. If $H^3(X)$ has a non-trivial odd primary torsion, then we show that $X$ is homotopy equivalent to the wedge of a Moore space and a CW-complex. As a corollary, given two 4-dimensional toric orbifolds having no 2-torsion in the cohomology, we prove that they have the same homotopy type if and only their integral cohomology rings are isomorphic.
We give estimates for the torsion in the Postnikov sections $τ_{[1, n]} S^0$ of the sphere spectrum, and show that the $p$-localization is annihilated by $p^{n/(2p-2) + O(1)}$. This leads to explicit bounds on the exponents of the kernel and cokernel of the Hurewicz map $π_*(X) \to H_*(X; \mathbb{Z})$ for a connective spectrum $X$. Such bounds were first considered by Arlettaz, although our estimates are tighter and we prove that they are the best possible up to a constant factor. As applications, we sharpen existing bounds on the orders of $k$-invariants in a connective spectrum, sharpen boun…
Let $X$ be a simply connected pointed space with finitely generated homotopy groups. Let $Π_n(X)$ denote the set of all continuous maps $a:I^n\to X$ taking $\partial I^n$ to the basepoint. For $a\inΠ_n(X)$, let $[a]\inπ_n(X)$ be its homotopy class. For an open set $E\subset I^n$, let $Π(E,X)$ be the set of all continuous maps $a:E\to X$ taking $E\cap\partial I^n$ to the basepoint. For a cover $Γ$ of $I^n$, let $Γ(r)$ be the set of all unions of at most $r$ elements of $Γ$. Put $r=(n-1)!$. We prove that for any finite open cover $Γ$ of $I^n$ there exist maps $f_E:Π(E,X)\toπ_n(X)\otimes Z[1/2]$,…
For $n\geq 2$ we compute the homotopy groups of $(n-1)$-connected closed manifolds of dimension $(2n+1)$. Away from the finite set of primes dividing the order of the torsion subgroup in homology, the $p$-local homotopy groups of $M$ are determined by the rank of the free Abelian part of the homology. Moreover, we show that these $p$-local homotopy groups can be expressed as a direct sum of $p$-local homotopy groups of spheres. The integral homotopy type of the loop space is also computed and shown to depend only on the rank of the free Abelian part and the torsion subgroup.
We define and study binary operations for homotopy groups with coefficients. We give conditions to prove that certain binary operations are the homomorphic image of the generalized Whitehead product. This allows carrying over properties of the generalized Whitehead product to these operations. We discuss two classes of binary operations, the Whitehead products and the Torsion products. We introduce a new class of operations called Ext operations and determine some of its properties. We compare the Torsion product to the Whitehead product in a special case. We prove that the smash product of tw…
The $p$-local homotopy types of gauge groups of principal $G$-bundles over $S^4$ are classified when $G$ is a compact connected exceptional Lie group without $p$-torsion in homology except for $(G,p)=(\mathrm{E}_7,5)$.
We establish certain conditions which imply that a map $f:X\to Y$ of topological spaces is null homotopic when the induced integral cohomology homomorphism is trivial; one of them is: $H^*(X)$ and $π_*(Y)$ have no torsion and $H^*(Y)$ is polynomial.
With a view toward studying the homotopy type of spaces of Boolean formulae, we introduce a simplicial complex, called the theta complex, associated to any hypergraph, which is the Alexander dual of the more well-known independence complex. In particular, the set of satisfiable formulae in k-conjunctive normal form with less than or equal to n variables has the homotopy type of Theta(Cube(n,n-k)), where Cube(n,n-k) is a hypergraph associated to the (n-k)-skeleton of an n-cube. We make partial progress in calculating the homotopy type of theta for these cubical hypergraphs, and we also give cal…
We study fibred spaces with fibres in a structure category $\V$ and we show that cellular approximation, Blakers--Massey theorem, Whitehead theorems, obstruction theory, Hurewicz homomorphism, Wall finiteness obstruction, and Whitehead torsion theorem hold for fibred spaces. For this we introduce the cohomology of fibred spaces.
Let $M_{l,m}$ be the total space of the $S^3$-bundle over $S^4$ classified by the element $lσ+mρ\in{π_4(SO(4))}$, $l,m\in\mathbb Z$. In this paper we study the homotopy theory of gauge groups of principal $G$-bundles over manifolds $M_{l,m}$ when $G$ is a simply connected simple compact Lie group such that $π_6(G)=0$. That is, $G$ is one of the following groups: $SU(n)$ $(n\geq4)$, $Sp(n)$ $(n\geq2)$, $Spin(n)$ $(n\geq5)$, $F_4$, $E_6$, $E_7$, $E_8$. If the integral homology of $M_{l,m}$ is torsion-free, we describe the homotopy type of the gauge groups over $M_{l,m}$ as products of recognisab…
In this note we show that a $p$-complete nilpotent space $X$ has a $p$-complete suspension spectrum if and only if its homotopy groups $π_*X$ are bounded $p$-torsion. In contrast, if $π_*X$ is not all bounded $p$-torsion, we locate uncountable rational vector spaces in the integral homology and in the stable homotopy groups of $X$. To prove this, we establish a homological criterion for $p$-completeness of connective spectra. Moreover, we illustrate our results by studying the stable homotopy groups of $K(\mathbb{Z}_p,n)$ via Goodwillie calculus.
We introduce a linearly ordered lattice $μ(Grp)$ of torsion theories in simplicial groups. The torsion theories are defined where the torsion/torsion-free subcategories are given by the simplicial groups with bounded above/below Moore complex, respectively. These torsion theories extend naturally the torsion theories in internal groupoids in groups. Connections of this lattice with the homotopy groups are established since the homotopy groups of a simplicial group can be calculated as the quotients of torsion subojects.
In this paper we give a formula for the homotopy groups of $(n-1)$-connected $2n$-manifolds as a direct sum of homotopy groups of spheres in the case the $n^{th}$ Betti number is larger than $1$. We demonstrate that when the $n^{th}$ Betti number is $1$ the homotopy groups might not have such a decomposition. The techniques used in this computation also yield formulae for homotopy groups of connected sums of sphere products and CW complexes of a similar type. In all the families of spaces considered here, we establish a conjecture of J. C. Moore.
Linear upper bounds are provided for the size of the torsion homology of negatively curved manifolds of finite volume in all dimensions $d\ne 3$. This extends a classical theorem by Gromov. In dimension $3$, as opposed to the Betti numbers, the size of torsion homology is unbounded in terms of the volume. Moreover, there is a sequence of $3$-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds that converges to $\mathbb{H}^3$ in the Benjamini--Schramm topology while its normalized torsion in the first homology is dense in $[0,\infty]$. In dimension $d\geq 4$ a somewhat precise estimate is given for the number of …
We give a new solution of the "homotopy periods" problem, as highlighted by Sullivan, which places explicit geometrically meaningful formulae first dating back to Whitehead in the context of Quillen's formalism for rational homotopy theory and Koszul-Moore duality. Geometrically, we show that homotopy groups are rationally given by "generalized linking/intersection invariants" of cochain data. Moreover, we give a method for determining when two maps from $S^n$ to $X$ are homotopic after allowing for multiplication by some integer. For applications, we investigate wedges of spheres and homogene…
We establish a bridge between homotopy groups of spheres and commutator calculus in groups, and solve in this manner the "dimension problem" by providing a converse to Sjogren's theorem: every abelian group of bounded exponent can be embedded in the dimension quotient of a group. This is proven by embedding for arbitrary $s,d$ the torsion of the homotopy group $π_s(S^d)$ into a dimension quotient, via a result of Wu. In particular, this invalidates some long-standing results in the literature, since for every prime $p$, there is some $p$-torsion in $π_{2p}(S^2)$ by a result of Serre. We explai…
In this master thesis, we extend results from classical simple homotopy theory to the world of stratified homotopy theory. To obtain a well-established framework to work in, we prove a series of results on two model categories of simplicial sets and topological spaces, both equipped with a notion of filtration, introduced by Sylvain Douteau in his PHD thesis. In particular, we show that there is a fully faithful embedding of homotopy categories from the (finite) filtered simplicial into the filtered topological setting. We also use these results to characterize the morphisms in the topological…
We bound the volume of the homotopy groups of the 2-local Goodwillie approximations of a sphere in terms of the amount of $2$-torsion in the stable stems, providing a Goodwillie-theoretic refinement of a result of Burklund and Senger (arXiv:2203.00670). At the $2^k$-excisive approximation, this bound is obtained by `multiplying the stable answer by a polynomial of degree $k$'. The main tool is Behrens' Goodwillie-EHP Long Exact Sequence.
We study Whitehead products in the rational homotopy groups of a general component of a function space. For the component of any based map f: X \to Y, in either the based or free function space, our main results express the Whitehead product directly in terms of the Quillen minimal model of f. These results follow from a purely algebraic development in the setting of chain complexes of derivations of differential graded Lie algebras, which is of interest in its own right. We apply the results to study the Whitehead length of function space components.
The Anick spaces play a key role in an unstable filtration of the stable homotopy of V(0) to produce secondary EHP sequences. This work establishes that the Anick spaces are homotopy associative and homotopy commutative H-spaces, and that they have a universal mapping property for maps into a homotopy commutative and homotopy associative H-space with a (necessary) condition on the growth of the p torsion. This is utilized to establish an unstable composition theory. The techniques involve generalized Whitehead products based on co-H spaces, calculations in a congruence category that lies betwe…
We classify flag complexes on at most 12 vertices with torsion in the first homology group. The result is moderately computer-aided. As a consequence we confirm a folklore conjecture that the smallest poset whose order complex is homotopy equivalent to the real projective plane (and also the smallest poset with torsion in the first homology group) has exactly 13 elements.
We define homotopy group actions in terms of families of $A_\infty$ algebras indexed by a manifold M. We give explicit formulae for the $A_\infty$ morphism induced by a path on the manifold and for the $A_\infty$ homotopy corresponding to a pair of homotopic paths. Finally, we compute examples for finite groups and finitely generated free nonabelian groups and determine that every homotopy group action by a finite group is homotopic to a strict group action.
One way to understand the mod p homotopy theory of classifying spaces of finite groups is to compute their BZ/p-cellularization. In the easiest cases this is a classifying space of a finite group (always a finite p-group). If not, we show that it has infinitely many non-trivial homotopy groups. Moreover they are either p-torsion free or else infinitely many of them contain p-torsion. By means of techniques related to fusion systems we exhibit concrete examples where p-torsion appears.
We study the homotopy aspects of the twisted Chern classes of torsion bundle gerbe modules. Using Sullivan's rational homotopy theory, we realize the twisted Chern classes at the level of classifying spaces. The construction suggests a notion, which we call fractional U-structure serving as a universal framework to study the twisted Chern classes of torsion bundle gerbe modules from the perspective of classifying spaces. Based on this, we introduce and study higher fractional structures on torsion bundle gerbe modules parallel to the higher structures on ordinary vector bundles.
We introduce the notion of groups of polytope class and show that torsion-free amenable groups satisfying the Atiyah Conjecture possess this property. A direct consequence is the homotopy invariance of the $L^2$-torsion polytope among $G$-CW-complexes for these groups. As another application we prove that the $L^2$-torsion polytope of an amenable group vanishes provided that it contains a non-abelian elementary amenable normal subgroup.
An affine monoid is an additive monoid which is cancellative, pointed and finitely generated. An affine monoid $Λ$ has the partial order defined by $λ\le λ+ μ$. The Frobenius complex is the order complex of an open interval of $Λ$ with respect to this partial order. The reduced homology of the Frobenius complex is related to the torsion group of the monoid algebra $K[Λ]$. In this paper, we pay attention to homotopy types of Frobenius complexes, and we express the homotopy types of the Frobenius complexes of $Λ$ in terms of those of $Λ_1$ and $Λ_2$ when $Λ$ is an affine monoid obtained by gluin…
We develop a functorial approach to the study of the homotopy groups of spheres and Moore spaces $M(A,n)$, based on the Curtis spectral sequence and the decomposition of Lie functors as iterates of simpler functors such as the symmetric or exterior algebra functors. The discussion takes place over the integers, and includes a functorial description of the derived functors of certain Lie algebra functors, as well as of all the main cubical functors (such as the degree 3 component $SP^3$ of the symmetric algebra functor). As an illustration of this method, we retrieve in a purely algebraic manne…
We examine the first non-vanishing higher homotopy group, $π_p$, of the complement of a hypersolvable, non--supersolvable, complex hyperplane arrangement, as a module over the group ring of the fundamental group, $\Zπ_1$. We give a presentation for the $I$--adic completion of $π_p$. We deduce that the second nilpotent $I$--adic quotient of $π_p$ is determined by the combinatorics of the arrangement, and we give a combinatorial formula for the second associated graded piece, $\gr^1_I π_p$. We relate the torsion of this graded piece to the dimensions of the minimal generating systems of the Orli…
We determine loop space decompositions of simply-connected four-manifolds, $(n-1)$-connected $2n$-dimensional manifolds provided $n\notin\{4,8\}$, and connected sums of products of two spheres. These are obtained as special cases of a more general loop space decomposition of certain torsion-free $CW$-complexes with well-behaved skeleta and some Poincaré duality features.
We recall a group-theoretic description of the first non-vanishing homotopy group of a certain (n+1)-ad of spaces and show how it yields several formulae for homotopy and homology groups of specific spaces. In particular we obtain an alternative proof of J. Wu's group-theoretic description of the homotopy groups of a 2-sphere.
Let p be an odd regular prime, and assume that the Lichtenbaum-Quillen conjecture holds for K(Z[1/p]) at p. Then the p-primary homotopy type of the smooth Whitehead spectrum Wh(*) is described. A suspended copy of the cokernel-of-J spectrum splits off, and the torsion homotopy of the remainder equals the torsion homotopy of the fiber of the restricted S^1-transfer map t: SigmaCP^infty--> S. The homotopy groups of Wh(*) are determined in a range of degrees, and the cohomology of Wh(*) is expressed as an A-module in all degrees, up to an extension. These results have geometric topological interp…
We compute the homology of the spaces in the Omega spectrum for $BoP$. There is no torsion in $H_*(\underline{BoP}_{\; i})$ for $i \ge 2$, and things are only slightly more complicated for $i < 2$. We find the complete homotopy type of $\underline{BoP}_{\; i}$ for $i \le 6$ and conjecture the homotopy type for $i > 6$. This completes the computation of all $H_*(\underline{MSU}_{\;*})$.
Let $G$ be a compact connected Lie group and $K$ a closed connected subgroup. Assume that the order of any torsion element in the integral cohomology of $G$ and $K$ is invertible in a given principal ideal domain $k$. It is known that in this case the cohomology of the homogeneous space $G/K$ with coefficients in $k$ and the torsion product of $H^{*}(BK)$ and $k$ over $H^{*}(BG)$ are isomorphic as $k$-modules. We show that this isomorphism is multiplicative and natural in the pair $(G,K)$ provided that 2 is invertible in $k$. The proof uses homotopy Gerstenhaber algebras in an essential way. I…
We show that the integral cohomology rings of the moduli spaces of stable rational marked curves are Koszul. This answers an open question of Manin. Using the machinery of Koszul spaces developed by Berglund, we compute the rational homotopy Lie algebras of those spaces, and obtain some estimates for Betti numbers of their free loop spaces in case of torsion coefficients. We also prove and conjecture some generalisations of our main result.
Let $M$ be a smooth, orientable, closed, connected $4$-manifold and suppose that $H_1(M;\mathbb{Z})$ is finitely generated and has no $2$-torsion. We give a homotopy decomposition of the suspension of $M$ in terms of spheres, Moore spaces and $Σ\mathbb{C}P^{2}$. This is used to calculate any reduced generalized cohomology theory of $M$ as a group and to determine the homotopy types of certain current groups and gauge groups.
In this article we show that the $p$-torsion exponent of the stable stems grows sublinearly in $n$ and the $p$-rank of the $E_2$-page of the Adams spectral sequence grows as $\exp(Θ( \log(n)^3))$. Together these bounds provide the first subexponential bound on the size of the stable stems. Conversely, we prove that a certain, precise, version of the failure of the telescope conjecture would imply that the upper bound provided by the Adams $E_2$-page is essentially sharp -- answering the titular question: As big as the fate of the telescope conjecture demands. In an appendix joint with Andrew S…
In previous work it is shown that there is an abelian category A(G) constructed to model rational G-equivariant cohomology theories, where G is a torus of rank r together with a homology functor \piA_* : Gspectra ---> A(G), and an Adams spectral sequence Ext_{A (G)} (\piA_*(X), \piA_*(Y)) ===> [X,Y]^G_* In joint work with Shipley (arxiv:1101.2511), it is shown that the Adams spectral sequence can be lifted to a Quillen equivalence Rational-Gspectra = DG-A (G). The purpose of the present paper is to prove that A(G) has injective dimension precisely r, and to construct certain torsion functors a…
We present a constructive method to compute the cellularization with respect to K(Z/p, m) for any integer m > 0 of a large class of H-spaces, namely all those which have a finite number of non-trivial K(Z/p, m)-homotopy groups (the pointed mapping space map(K(Z/p, m), X) is a Postnikov piece). We prove in particular that the K(Z/p, m)-cellularization of an H-space having a finite number of K(Z/p, m)-homotopy groups is a p-torsion Postnikov piece. Along the way we characterize the BZ/p^r-cellular classifying spaces of nilpotent groups.
We use Klyachko's methods [A funny property of sphere and equations over groups, Comm. in Alg. 21 (1993) 2555--2575] (see also Fenn-Rourke, L'Enseignment Math. 42 (1996) 49--74 and math.GR/9810184 and Cohen-Rourke, math.GR/0009101) to prove that, if a 1-cell and a 2-cell are added to a complex with torsion-free fundamental group, and with the 2-cell attached by an amenable t-shape, then pi_2 changes by extension of scalars. It then follows using a result of Bogley and Pride, Proc. Edinburgh Math. Soc. 35 (1992) 1--39, that the resulting fundamental group is also torsion free. We also prove tha…
Let $Y$ be a pointed space and let $\mathcal E(Y^r)$ be the group of based self-equivalences of $Y^r$, $r\geq 2$. For $Y$ a homotopy commutative $H$-group we construct a subgroup $\mathcal E_{\mathrm{Mat}}(Y^r)$ of $\mathcal E(Y^r)$ which has a group structure isomorphic to either $GL_r(\mathbb Z)$, or $GL_r(\mathbb Z_d)$, $d\geq 2$. We classify principal bundles over connected sums of $q$-sphere bundles over $n$-spheres and use the group $\mathcal E_{\mathrm{Mat}}(Y^r)$ to obtain homotopy decompositions of their gauge groups. Using these decompositions we give an integral classification, up t…
This paper is on the connecting homomorphism in the long exact homotopy sequence of the evaluation fibration $ev_{p_0}:C(P,K)^K \to K$, where $C(P,K)^K \cong Gau(P)$ is the gauge group of a continuous principal $K$-bundle $P$ over a closed orientable surface or a sphere. We show that in this cases the connecting homomorphism in the corresponding long exact homotopy sequence is given in terms of the Samelson product. As applications, we exploit this correspondence to get an explicit formula for $π_2 (Gau(P_k))$, where $P_k$ denotes the principal $S^3$-bundle over $S^4$ of Chern number $k$ and d…
Let $p$ be prime. We prove that, for $n$ odd, the $p$-torsion part of $π_q(S^{n})$ has cardinality at most $p^{2^{\frac{1}{p-1}(q-n+3-2p)}}$, and hence has rank at most $2^{\frac{1}{p-1}(q-n+3-2p)}$. For $p=2$ these results also hold for $n$ even. The best bounds proven in the existing literature are $p^{2^{q-n+1}}$ and $2^{q-n+1}$ respectively, both due to Hans-Werner Henn. The main point of our result is therefore that the bound grows more slowly for larger primes. As a corollary of work of Henn, we obtain a similar result for the homotopy groups of a broader class of spaces.
We prove that every finite connected simplicial complex is homotopy equivalent to the quotient of a contractible manifold by proper actions of a virtually torsion-free group. As a corollary, we obtain that every finite connected simplicial complex is homotopy equivalent to the classifying space for proper bundles of some virtual Poincaré duality group.
This paper takes its starting point in an idea of Grothendieck on the representation of homotopy types. We show that any locally finite nilpotent homotopy can be represented by a simplicial set which is a finitely generated free group in all degrees and whose maps are given by polynomials with rational coefficients. Such a simplicial set is in some sense a universal localisation/completion as all localisations and completions of the homotopy is easily contructed from it. In particular relations with the Quillen and Sullivan approaches are presented. When the theory is applied to the Eilenberg-…
Cobordism groups of cooriented fold maps of codimension 1 are computed completely. Namely their odd torsion part coincides with that of the stable homotopy group of spheres in the same dimension, while the 2-primary part is the kernel of the Kahn-Priddy map. (The Kahn-Priddy map is an epimorhism of the stable homotopy group of the infinite dimensional real projective space onto the 2-primary part of the stable homotopy group of spheres). Analogous results - modulo small primes - are obtained for cusp maps and more complicated Morin maps as well.
Let X be a simply connected Riemannian manifold. Until now, quantitative topology has used Sullivan's rational homotopy theory as the bridge between geometric information on X and torsion-free homotopy theoretic information on X. In this paper we introduce Chen's iterated integrals on the based loop space of X as a new bridge between these two areas. We give two applications: finding upper bounds for Gromov's distortion of higher homotopy groups on X and also proving the non-existence of homologically non-trivial small-volume cycles in the space of loops on X of length at most L.
