We give an alternative to the stable classification of p-completed homotopy types of classifying spaces of finite groups offered by Martino-Priddy. For a finite group G with Sylow subgroup S, we regard the stable p-completed classifying space of G as an object under the stable p-completed classifying space of S via the canonical inclusion map. Thus we get a classification in terms of induced fusion systems. Applying Oliver's solution to the Martino-Priddy conjecture, we obtain the surprising result that the unstable p-completed homotopy type of BG is determined by the stable p-completed inclusion of BS in BG, but not by the stable p-completed homotopy type of BG.
Among the generalizations of Serre's theorem on the homotopy groups of a finite complex we isolate the one proposed by Dwyer and Wilkerson. Even though the spaces they consider must be 2-connected, we show that it can be used to both recover known results and obtain new theorems about p-completed classifying spaces.
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.
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.
We formulate and prove a new variant of the Segal Conjecture describing the group of homotopy classes of stable maps from the p-completed classifying space of a finite group G to the classifying space of a compact Lie group K as the p-adic completion of the Grothendieck group of finite principal (G,K)-bundles whose isotropy groups are p-groups. Collecting the result for different primes p, we get a new and simple description of the group of homotopy classes of stable maps between (uncompleted) classifying spaces of groups. This description allows us to determine the kernel of the map from the …
Which spaces occur as a classifying space for fibrations with a given fibre? We address this question in the context of rational homotopy theory. We construct an infinite family of finite complexes realized (up to rational homotopy) as classifying spaces. We also give several non-realization results, including the following: the rational homotopy types of $\mathbb{C}P^2$ and $S^4$ are not realized as the classifying space of any simply connected, rational space with finite-dimensional homotopy groups.
The classifying space BG of a topological group $G$ can be filtered by a sequence of subspaces $B(q,G)$, using the descending central series of free groups. If $G$ is finite, describing them as homotopy colimits is convenient when applying homotopy theoretic methods. In this paper we introduce natural subspaces $B(q,G)_p$ of $B(q,G)$ defined for a fixed prime $p$. We show that $B(q,G)$ is stably homotopy equivalent to a wedge of $B(q,G)_p$ as $p$ runs over the primes dividing the order of $G$. Colimits of abelian groups play an important role in understanding the homotopy type of these spaces.…
We give a new description of Rosenthal's generalized homotopy fixed point spaces as homotopy limits over the orbit category. This is achieved using a simple categorical model for classifying spaces with respect to families of subgroups.
Fix a prime $p$. Since their definition in the context of Localization Theory, the homotopy functors $P_{B\Z/p}$ and $CW_{B\Z/p}$ have shown to be powerful tools to understand and describe the mod $p$ structure of a space. In this paper, we study the effect of these functors on a wide class of spaces which includes classifying spaces of compact Lie groups and their homotopical analogues. Moreover, we investigate their relationship in this context with other relevant functors in the analysis of the mod $p$ homotopy, such as Bousfield-Kan completion and Bousfield homological localization.
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.
Let p be a fibration of simply connected CW complexes with finite base B and fibre F. Let aut_1(p) denote the identity component of the space of all fibre-homotopy self-equivalences of p and Baut_1(p) the classifying space for this topological monoid. We give a differential graded Lie algebra model for Baut_1(p). We use this model to give classification results for the rational homotopy types represented by Baut_1(p) and also to obtain conditions under which the monoid aut_1(p) is a double loop-space after rationalization.
Let G be a discrete group for which the classifying space for proper G-actions is finite-dimensional. We find a space W such that for any such G, the classifying space PBG for proper G-bundles has the homotopy type of the W-nullification of BG. We use this to deduce some results concerning PBG and in some cases where there is a good model for PBG we obtain information about the BZ/p-nullification of BG.
We show that the classifying space functor $B: Mon \to Top*$ from the category of topological monoids to the category of based spaces is left adjoint to the Moore loop space functor $Ω': Top*\to Mon$ after we have localized $Mon$ with respect to all homomorphisms whose underlying maps are homotopy equivalences and $Top*$ with respect to all based maps which are (not necessarily based) homotopy equivalences. It is well-known that this localization of $Top*$ exists, and we show that the localization of $Mon$ is the category of monoids and homotopy classes of homotopy homomorphisms. To make this …
Given $X$ a finite nilpotent simplicial set, consider the classifying fibrations $$ X\to Baut_G^*(X)\to Baut_G(X),\qquad X\to Z\to Baut_π^*(X), $$ where $G$ and $π$ denote, respectively, subgroups of the free and pointed homotopy classes of free and pointed self homotopy equivalences of $X$ which act nilpotently on $H_*(X)$ and $π_*(X)$. We give algebraic models, in terms of complete differential graded Lie algebras (cdgl's), of the rational homotopy type of these fibrations. Explicitly, if $L$ is a cdgl model of $X$, there are connected sub cdgl's $Der^G L$ and $Der^π L$ of the Lie algebra $D…
In this note we show that the second homotopy group of $B(2,G)$, the classifying space for commutativity for a compact Lie group $G$, contains a direct summand isomorphic to $π_1(G)\oplusπ_1([G,G])$, where $[G,G]$ is the commutator subgroup of $G$. It follows from a similar statement for $E(2,G)$, the homotopy fiber of the canonical inclusion $B(2,G)\hookrightarrow BG$. As a consequence of our main result we obtain that if $E(2,G)$ is 2-connected, then $[G,G]$ is simply-connected. This last result completes how the higher connectivity of $E(2,G)$ resembles the higher connectivity of $[G,G]$ fo…
In this paper, we determine the homotopy groups π_4(ΣK(A,1)) and π_5(ΣK(A,1)) for abelian groups A by using different facts and methods from group theory and homotopy theory: derived functors, the Carlsson simplicial construction, the Baues-Goerss spectral sequence, homotopy decompositions and the methods of algebraic K-theory. As the applications, we also determine π_i(ΣK(G,1)) with i=4,5 for some non-abelian groups G=Σ_3 and SL(Z), and π_4(ΣK(A_4,1)) for the 4-th alternating group A_4.
For each of the groups $G = O(2), SU(2), U(2)$, we compute the integral and $\mathbb{F}_2$-cohomology rings of $B_\text{com} G$ (the classifying space for commutativity of $G$), the action of the Steenrod algebra on the mod 2 cohomology, the homotopy type of $E_\text{com} G$ (the homotopy fiber of the inclusion $B_\text{com} G \to BG$), and some low-dimensional homotopy groups of $B_\text{com} G$.
In this paper, we examine the `derived completion' of the representation ring of a pro-p group G_p^ with respect to an augmentation ideal. This completion is no longer a ring: it is a spectrum with the structure of a module spectrum over the Eilenberg-MacLane spectrum HZ, and can have higher homotopy information. In order to explain the origin of some of these higher homotopy classes, we define a deformation representation ring functor R[-] from groups to ring spectra, and show that the map R[G_p^] --> R[G] becomes an equivalence after completion when G is finitely generated nilpotent. As an a…
In "Homotopy decomposition of classifying spaces via elementary Abelian subgroups", Stephan Jackowski and James McClure show, for functors admitting a Mackey complement over categories holding a direct product, a general result on vanishing cohomology. We develop a framework leading to a general result on trivial homotopy which partially generalizes Jackowski and McClure's result in two different directions.
An old theorem of Charney and Lee says that the classifying space of the category of stable nodal topological surfaces and isotopy classes of degenerations has the same rational homology as the Deligne-Mumford compactification. We give an integral refinement: the classifying space of the Charney-Lee category actually has the same homotopy type as the moduli stack of stable curves, and the etale homotopy type of the moduli stack is equivalent to the profinite completion of the classifying space of the Charney-Lee category.
We describe various equivalent ways of associating to an orbifold, or more generally a higher étale differentiable stack, a weak homotopy type. Some of these ways extend to arbitrary higher stacks on the site of smooth manifolds, and we show that for a differentiable stack X arising from a Lie groupoid G, the weak homotopy type of X agrees with that of BG. Using this machinery, we are able to find new presentations for the weak homotopy type of certain classifying spaces. In particular, we give a new presentation for the Borel construction of an almost free action of a Lie group G on a smooth …
The results of a previous paper on the equivariant homotopy theory of crossed complexes are generalised from the case of a discrete group to general topological groups. The principal new ingredient necessary for this is an analysis of homotopy coherence theory for crossed complexes, using detailed results on the appropriate Eilenberg-Zilber theory from Tonks' thesis, and of its relation to simplicial homotopy coherence. Again, our results give information not just on the homotopy classification of certain equivariant maps, but also on the weak equivariant homotopy type of the corresponding equ…
We give examples of spaces which are good and bad at different primes in the sense of Bousfield and Kan in any arbitrary combination and investigate which impact the existence of a Sylow $p$-subgroup has on the homotopy type on the classifying space and under which conditions the homotopy type of wedges of classifying spaces is good or bad for a solid ring $R$. We give results relating to various other $R$-homological structures and a collection of examples.
We establish an isomorphism between the stable homotopy groups of the 2-completed motivic sphere spectrum over the real numbers and the corresponding stable homotopy groups of the 2-completed Z/2-equivariant sphere spectrum, in a certain range of dimensions.
The classifying space of a crossed complex generalises the construction of Eilenberg-Mac Lane spaces. We show how the theory of fibrations of crossed complexes allows the analysis of homotopy classes of maps from a free crossed complex to such a classifying space. This gives results on the homotopy classification of maps from a CW-complex to the classifying space of a crossed module and also, more generally, of a crossed complex whose homotopy groups vanish in dimensions between 1 and n. The results are analogous to those for the obstruction to an abstract kernel in group extension theory.
Self equivalences of classifying spaces of $p$-local compact groups are well understood by means of the algebraic structure that gives rise to them, but explicit descriptions are lacking. In this paper we use a construction of Robinson of an amalgam $G$, realizing a given fusion system, to produce a split epimorphism from the outer automorphism group of $G$ to the group of homotopy classes of self homotopy equivalences of the classifying space of the corresponding $p$-local compact group.
This paper explores the relationship amongst the various simplicial and pseudo-simplicial objects characteristically associated to any bicategory C. It proves the fact that the geometric realizations of all of these possible candidate `nerves of C' are homotopy equivalent. Any one of these realizations could therefore be taken as the classifying space BC of the bicategory. Its other major result proves a direct extension of Thomason's `Homotopy Colimit Theorem' to bicategories: When the homotopy colimit construction is carried out on a diagram of spaces obtained by applying the classifying spa…
A p-local finite group is an algebraic structure with a classifying space which has many of the properties of p-completed classifying spaces of finite groups. In this paper, we construct a family of 2-local finite groups, which are exotic in the following sense: they are based on certain fusion systems over the Sylow 2-subgroup of Spin_7(q) (q an odd prime power) shown by Solomon not to occur as the 2-fusion in any actual finite group. Thus, the resulting classifying spaces are not homotopy equivalent to the 2-completed classifying space of any finite group. As predicted by Benson, these class…
We define the notion of {\em classifying space} of a topological stack and show that every topological stack \X has a classifying space X which is a topological space well-defined up to weak homotopy equivalence. Under a certain paracompactness condition on \X, we show that X is actually well-defined up to homotopy equivalence. These results are formulated in terms of functors from the category of topological stacks to the (weak) homotopy category of topological spaces. We prove similar results for (small) diagrams of topological stacks.
Small Bénabou's bicategories and, in particular, Mac Lane's monoidal categories, have well-understood classifying spaces, which give geometric meaning to their cells. This paper contains some contributions to the study of the relationship between bicategories and the homotopy types of their classifying spaces. Mainly, generalizations are given of Quillen's Theorems A and B to lax functors between bicategories.
Given a simplicial group G, there are two known classifying simplicial set constructions, the Kan classifying simplicial set Wbar G and Diag N G, where N denotes the dimensionwise nerve. They are known to be weakly homotopy equivalent. We will show that Wbar G is a strong simplicial deformation retract of Diag N G. In particular, Wbar G and Diag N G are simplicially homotopy equivalent.
We construct a dg Lie model for the universal cover of the classifying space of the grouplike monoid of homotopy automorphisms of a space that fix a given subspace.
Let G be a finite group and p a prime dividing its order. We define new collections of p-subgroups of G. We study the homotopy relations among them and with the standard collections of p-subgroups. We determine their ampleness and sharpness properties.
The assignment of classifying spectra to saturated fusion systems was suggested by Linckelmann and Webb and has been carried out by Broto, Levi and Oliver. A more rigid (but equivalent) construction of the classifying spectra is given in this paper. It is shown that the assignment is functorial for fusion-preserving homomorphisms in a way which extends the assignment of stable p-completed classifying spaces to finite groups, and admits a transfer theory analogous to that for finite groups. Furthermore the group of homotopy classes of maps between classifying spectra is described, and in partic…
We determine the v1-periodic homotopy groups of all irreducible p-compact groups (BX,X). In the most difficult, modular, cases, we follow a direct path from their associated invariant polynomials to these homotopy groups. We show that, if p is odd, every irreducible p-compact group has X of the homotopy type of a product of explicit spaces related to p-completed Lie groups.
This belongs to a series of papers devoted to the study of the cohomology of classifying spaces of Lie groupoids. Our aim here is to introduce and study the notion of representation up to homotopy of Lie groupoids, the resulting derived category, and to show that the adjoint representation is well defined as a representation up to homotopy. As an application, we extend Bott's spectral sequence converging to the cohomology of classifying spaces from Lie groups to Lie groupoids.
We study the mod-$\ell$ homotopy type of classifying spaces for commutativity, $B(\mathbb{Z}, G)$, at a prime $\ell$. We show that the mod-$\ell$ homology of $B(\mathbb{Z}, G)$ depends on the mod-$\ell$ homotopy type of $BG$ when $G$ is a compact connected Lie group, in the sense that a mod-$\ell$ homology isomorphism $BG \to BH$ for such groups induces a mod-$\ell$ homology isomorphism $B(\mathbb{Z}, G) \to B(\mathbb{Z}, H)$. In order to prove this result, we study a presentation of $B(\mathbb{Z}, G)$ as a homotopy colimit over a topological poset of closed abelian subgroups, expanding on an …
The homotopy theory of higher categorical structures has become a relevant part of the machinery of algebraic topology and algebraic K-theory, and this paper contains contributions to the study of the relationship between Bénabou's bicategories and the homotopy types of their classifying spaces. Mainly, we state and prove an extension of Quillen's Theorem B by showing, under reasonable necessary conditions, a bicategory-theoretical interpretation of the homotopy-fibre product of the continuous maps induced on classifying spaces by a diagram of bicategories $\mathcal{A}\to\mathcal{B}\leftarrow …
We study the rational homotopy types of classifying spaces of automorphism groups of smooth simply connected manifolds of dimension at least five. We give dg Lie algebra models for the homotopy automorphisms and the block diffeomorphisms of such manifolds. Moreover, we use these models to calculate the rational cohomology of the classifying spaces of the homotopy automorphisms and block diffeomorphisms of the manifold #^g S^d x S^d relative to an embedded disk as g tends to infinity. The answer is expressed in terms of stable cohomology of arithmetic groups and invariant Lie algebra cohomology…
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.
Using the theory of extensions of L-infinity algebras, we construct rational homotopy models for classifying spaces of fibrations, giving answers in terms of classical homological functors, namely the Chevalley-Eilenberg and Harrison cohomology. We also investigate the algebraic structure of the Chevalley-Eilenberg complexes of L-infinity algebras and show that they possess, along with the Gerstenhaber bracket, an L-infinity structure that is homotopy abelian.
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.
This work contributes to clarifying several relationships between certain higher categorical structures and the homotopy type of their classifying spaces. Bicategories (in particular monoidal categories) have well understood simple geometric realizations, and we here deal with homotopy types represented by lax diagrams of bicategories, that is, lax functors to the tricategory of bicategories. In this paper, it is proven that, when a certain bicategorical Grothendieck construction is performed on a lax diagram of bicategories, then the classifying space of the resulting bicategory can be though…
Nakajima introduced a resolution of singularities of the Donaldson-Uhlenbeck completion of the moduli space of based instantons over $S^4$. For $k\leq 4$, we extend this result to $\mathbb P^2$ and compute, in the rank-stable limit, the homotopy type of these spaces by showing that, in this limit, these constructions yield universal bundles.
We give a new proof, using comparatively simple techniques, of the Sullivan conjecture: the space of pointed maps from the classifying space of the cyclic group of order $p$ to any finite-dimensional CW complex $K$ is contractible.
We show that cellular approximations of nilpotent Postnikov stages are always nilpotent Postnikov stages, in particular classifying spaces of nilpotent groups are turned into classifying spaces of nilpotent groups. We use a modified Bousfield-Kan homology completion tower z_k X whose terms we prove are all X-cellular for any X. As straightforward consequences, we show that if X is K-acyclic and nilpotent for a given homology theory K, then so are all its Postnikov sections, and that any nilpotent space for which the space of pointed self-maps map_*(X,X) is "canonically" discrete must be aspher…
Given a fibration of simply connected CW complexes of finite type, we study the evaluation subgroup of the fibre inclusion as an invariant of fibre-homotopy type. For spherical fibrations, we show the evaluation subgroup may be expressed as an extension of the Gottlieb group of the fibre sphere provided the classifying map induces the trivial map on homotopy groups. We extend this result after rationalization: We show that the rationalized evaluation subgroup of the fibre inclusion decomposes as the direct sum of the rationalized Gottlieb group of the fibre and the rationalized homotopy group …
Using spaces of homomorphisms and the descending central series of the free groups, simplicial spaces are constructed for each integer q>1 and every topological group G, with realizations B(q,G) that filter the classifying space BG. In particular for q=2 this yields a single space B(2,G) assembled from all the n-tuples of commuting elements in G. Homotopy properties of the B(q,G) are considered for finite groups. Cohomology calculations are provided for compact Lie groups. The spaces B(2,G) are described in detail for transitively commutative groups.
We extend the homotopy theories based on point reduction for finite spaces and simplicial complexes to finite acyclic categories and $Δ$-complexes, respectively. The functors of classifying spaces and face posets are compatible with these homotopy theories. In contrast with the classical settings of finite spaces and simplicial complexes, the universality of morphisms and simplices plays a central role in this paper.
