We use methods of combinatorial number theory to prove that, for each $n>1$ and any prime $p$, some homotopy group $π_i(SU(n))$ contains an element of order $p^{n-1+ord_p([n/p]!)}$, where $ord_p(m)$ denotes the largest integer $α$ such that $p^α$ divides $m$.
We show that H-spaces with finitely generated cohomology, as an algebra or as an algebra over the Steenrod algebra, have homotopy exponents at all primes. This provides a positive answer to a question of Stanley.
We note that a recent result of the second author yields upper bounds for odd-primary homotopy exponents of compact simple Lie groups which are often quite close to the lower bounds obtained from v_1-periodic homotopy theory.
We study the asymptotic behavior of the homotopy groups of simply connected finite $p$-local complexes, and define a space to be locally hyperbolic if its homotopy groups have exponential growth. Under some certain conditions related to the functorial decomposition of loop suspension, we prove that the suspended finite complexes are locally hyperbolic if suitable but accessible information of the homotopy groups is known. In particular, we prove that Moore spaces are locally hyperbolic, and other candidates are also given.
For primes p>=3, Cohen, Moore, and Neisendorfer showed that the exponent of the p-torsion in the homotopy groups of S^2n+1 is p^n. This was obtained as a consequence of a thorough analysis of the homotopy theory of Moore spaces. Anick further developed this for p>=5 by constructing a homotopy fibration S^2n-1 --> T^2n+1(p^r) --> Loop S^2n+1 whose connecting map is degree p^r on the bottom cell. A much simpler construction of such a fibration for p>=3 was given by Gray and the author using new methods. In this paper the new methods are used to start over, first constructing Anick's fibration fo…
Let $p$ be an odd prime, and fix integers $m$ and $n$ such that $0<m<n\leq (p-1)(p-2)$. We give a $p$-local homotopy decomposition for the loop space of the complex Stiefel manifold $W_{n,m}$. Similar decompositions are given for the loop space of the real and symplectic Stiefel manifolds. As an application of these decompositions, we compute upper bounds for the $p$-exponent of $W_{n,m}$. Upper bounds for $p$-exponents in the stable range $2m<n$ and $0<m\leq (p-1)(p-2)$ are computed as well.
In this article, we study the exponents of metastable homotopy of mod $2$ Moore spaces. Our result gives that the double loop space of $4n$-dimensional mod $2$ Moore spaces has a multiplicative exponent $4$ below the range of $4$ times the connectivity. As a consequence, the homotopy groups of $4n$-dimensional mod $2$ Moore spaces have an exponent $4$ below the range of $4$ times the connectivity.
Let $P^{2n+1}$ be a two-cell complex which is formed by attaching a $(2n+1)$--cell to a $2m$--sphere by a suspension map. We construct a universal space $U$ for $P^{2n+1}$ in the category of homotopy associative, homotopy commutative $H$--spaces. By universal we mean that $U$ is homotopy associative, homotopy commutative, and has the property that any map $f\colon P^{2n+1}\lra Y$ to a homotopy associative, homotopy commutative $H$--space $Y$ extends to a uniquely determined $H$--map $\bar{f}\colon U\lra Y$. We then prove upper and lower bounds of the $H$--homotopy exponent of $U$. In the case …
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…
Basic examples show that coincidence theory is intimately related to central subjects of differential topology and homotopy theory such as Kervaire invariants and divisibility properties of Whitehead products and of Hopf invariants. We recall some recent results and ask a few questions which seems to be important for a more comprehensive understanding.
We investigate the exponents of the total Cohen groups $[Ω(\mathbb S^{r+1}), Ω(Y)]$ for any $r\ge 1$. In particular, we show that for $p\ge 3$, the $p$-primary exponents of $[Ω(\mathbb S^{r+1}), Ω(\mathbb S^{2n+1})]$ and $[Ω(\mathbb S^{r+1}), Ω(\mathbb S^{2n})]$ coincide with the $p$-primary homotopy exponents of spheres $\mathbb S^{2n+1}$ and $\mathbb S^{2n}$, respectively. We further study the exponent problem when $Y$ is a space with the homotopy type of $Σ(n)/G$ for a homotopy $n$-sphere $Σ(n)$, the complex projective space $\mathbb{C}P^n$ for $n\ge 1$ or the quaternionic projective space …
Goodwillie's proof of the Blakers-Massey Theorem for $n$-cubes relies on a lemma whose proof invokes transversality. The rest of his proof follows from general facts about cubes of spaces and connectivities of maps. We present a purely homotopy-theoretic proof of this lemma. The methods are elementary, using a generalization and modification of an argument originally due to Puppe used to prove the Blakers-Massey Theorem for squares.
We determine precisely the largest v1-periodic homotopy groups of SU(2^e) and SU(2^e + 1). This gives new results about the largest actual homotopy groups of these spaces. Our proof relies on results about 2-divisibility of restricted sums of binomial coefficients times powers proved by the author in a companion paper.
We classify a number of symmetry protected phases using Freed-Hopkins' homotopy theoretic classification. Along the way we compute the low-dimensional homotopy groups of a number of novel cobordism spectra.
Chas and Sullivan proved the existence of a Batalin-Vilkovisky algebra structure in the homology of free loop spaces on closed finite dimensional smooth manifolds using chains and chain homotopies. This algebraic structure involves an associative product called the loop product, a Lie bracket called the loop bracket, and a square 0 operator called the BV operator. Cohen and Jones gave a homotopy theoretic description of the loop product in terms of spectra. In this paper, we give an explicit homotopy theoretic description of the loop bracket and, using this description, we give a homological p…
By results of Loeffler and Comezana, the Pontrjagin-Thom map from geometric G-equivariant bordism to homotopy theoretic equivariant bordism is injective for compact abelian G. If G = S^1 x ... x S^1, we prove that the associated fixed point square is a pull back square, thus confirming a recent conjecture of D. Sinha. This is used in order to determine the image of the Pontrjagin-Thom map for toral G.
Given a simply connected, closed four manifold, we associate to it a simply connected, closed, spin five manifold. This leads to several consequences : the stable and unstable homotopy groups of such a four manifold is determined by its second Betti number, and the ranks of the homotopy groups can be explicitly calculated. We show that for a generic metric on such a smooth four manifold with second Betti number at least three, the number of geometrically distinct periodic geodesics of length at most l grow exponentially as a function of l. The number of closed Reeb orbits of length at most l o…
Let $G$ be a group and $R,S,T$ its normal subgroups. There is a natural extension of the concept of commutator subgroup for the case of three subgroups $\|R,S,T\|$ as well as the natural extension of the symmetric product $\|\bf r,\bf s,\bf t\|$ for corresponding ideals $\bf r,\bf s, \bf t$ in the integral group ring $\mathbb Z[G]$. In this paper, it is shown that the generalized dimension subgroup $G\cap (1+\|\bf r,\bf s,\bf t\|)$ has exponent 2 modulo $\|R,S,T\|.$ The proof essentially uses homotopy theory. The considered generalized dimension quotient of exponent 2 is identified with a subg…
This paper presents a novel connection between homotopical algebra and mathematical logic. It is shown that a form of intensional type theory is valid in any Quillen model category, generalizing the Hofmann-Streicher groupoid model of Martin-Loef type theory.
The bootstrap category in E-theory for C*-algebras over a finite space X is embedded into the homotopy category of certain diagrams of K-module spectra. Therefore it has infinite n-order for every n. The same holds for the bootstrap category in G-equivariant E-theory for a compact group G and for the Spanier--Whitehead category in connective E-theory.
We prove that the homotopy theory of parametrized spaces embeds fully and faithfully in the homotopy theory of simplicial presheaves, and that its essential image consists of the locally homotopically constant objects. This gives a homotopy-theoretic version of the classical identification of covering spaces with locally constant sheaves. We also prove a new version of the classical result that spaces parametrized over X are equivalent to spaces with an action of the loop space of X. This gives a homotopy-theoretic version of the correspondence between covering spaces over X and sets with an a…
Combinatorial groups together with the groups of natural coalgebra transformations of tensor algebras are linked to the groups of homotopy classes of maps from the James construction to a loop space. This connection gives rise to applications to homotopy theory. The Hopf invariants of the Whitehead products are studied and a rate of exponent growth for the strong version of the Barratt Conjecture is given.
We introduce the notion of a logical model category which is a Quillen model category satisfying some additional conditions. Those conditions provide enough expressive power that one can soundly interpret dependent products and sums in it. On the other hand, those conditions are easy to check and provide a wide class of models some of which are listed in the paper.
We explain how any cofibrantly generated weak factorisation system on a category may be equipped with a universally and canonically determined choice of cofibrant replacement. We then apply this to the theory of weak omega-categories, showing that the universal and canonical cofibrant replacement of the operad for strict omega-categories is precisely Leinster's operad for weak omega-categories.
The aim of this paper is to give a (discrete) Morse theoretic proof of the fact that the $k$-th skeleton of the flag complex $\mathcal{F}$, associated to the lattice of subspaces of a finite dimensional vector space, is homotopy equivalent to a wedge of spheres of dimension $\min\{k,\dim(\mathcal{F})\}$. The tight control provided by Morse theoretic methods allows us to give an explicit formula for the number of spheres appearing in each of these wedge summands.
We construct cohomology classes in the space of knots by considering a bundle over this space and "integrating along the fiber" classes coming from the cohomology of configuration spaces using a Pontrjagin-Thom construction. The bundle we consider is essentially the one considered by Bott and Taubes, who integrated differential forms along the fiber to get knot invariants. By doing this "integration" homotopy-theoretically, we are able to produce integral cohomology classes. We then show how this integration is compatible with the homology operations on the space of long knots, as studied by B…
We use Wagner's algorithm to estimate the number of periodic points of certain selfmaps on compact surfaces with boundary. When counting according to homotopy classes, we can use the asymptotic density to measure the size of sets of selfmaps. In this sense, we show that "almost all" such selfmaps have periodic points of every period, and that in fact the number of periodic points of period n grows exponentially in n. We further discuss this exponential growth rate and the topological and fundamental-group entropies of these maps. Since our approach is via the Nielsen number, which is homotopy …
We describe a homotopy-theoretic approach to the theory of moduli of realizations of Blanc-Dwyer-Goerss, reproducing their obstructions to realizing a given $Π$-algebra as homotopy groups of a pointed space. Our techniques are based on the $\infty$-category $\mathcal{P}_Σ(\mathcal{S}ph)$ of product-preserving presheaves on finite wedges of positive-dimensional spheres, leading to more conceptual and streamlined arguments.
We study 2-monads and their algebras using a Cat-enriched version of Quillen model categories, emphasizing the parallels between the homotopical and 2-categorical points of view. Every 2-category with finite limits and colimits has a canonical model structure in which the weak equivalences are the equivalences; we use these to construct more interesting model structures on 2-categories, including a model structure on the 2-category of algebras for a 2-monad T, and a model structure on a 2-category of 2-monads on a fixed 2-category K.
In this paper we prove a tertiary index theorem which relates a spectral geometric and a homotopy theoretic invariant of an almost complex manifold with framed boundary. It is derived from the index theoretic and homotopy theoretic versions of a complex elliptic genus and interestingly related with the structure of the stable homotopy groups of spheres.
We use descent theoretic methods to solve the homotopy limit problem for Hermitian $K$-theory over quasi-compact and quasi-separated base schemes. As another application of these descent theoretic methods, we compute the cellular Picard group of 2-complete Hermitian $K$-theory over $\mathop{Spec}(\mathbb{C})$, showing that the only invertible cellular spectra are suspensions of the tensor unit.
For $n \in \mathbb{N}$, let $h(n)$ denote the number of simplicial complexes on $n$ vertices up to homotopy equivalence. Here we prove that $h(n) \geq 2^{2^{0.02n}}$ when $n$ is large enough. Together with the trivial upper bound of $2^{2^n}$ on the number of labeled simplicial complexes on $n$ vertices this proves a conjecture of Kalai that $h(n)$ is doubly exponential in $n$.
Digital topology is part of the ongoing endeavour to understand and analyze digitized images. With a view to supporting this endeavour, many notions from algebraic topology have been introduced into the setting of digital topology. But some of the most basic notions from homotopy theory remain largely absent from the digital topology literature. We embark on a development of homotopy theory in digital topology, and define such fundamental notions as function spaces, path spaces, and cofibrations in this setting. We establish digital analogues of basic homotopy-theoretic properties such as the …
Let $M$ be a simply-connected $m$ dimensional manifold of finite type and $k$ a positif integer. In this paper we show that the rational Betti numbers of each component of the space of immersions of $M$ in $\mathbb{R}^{m+k}$, have polynomial growth. As consequence, we deduce that, if $M$ is a manifold with Euler characteristic $χ\left(M\right)\leq -2$, the Betti numbers of smooth embeddings, $Emb\left(M ,\mathbb{R}^{m+k}\right)$, have exponential growth if $k\geq m+1$. The main tool of this work is the construction of an explicit model of the space of immersions.
Recent work on homotopy type theory exploits an exciting new correspondence between Martin-Lof's dependent type theory and the mathematical disciplines of category theory and homotopy theory. The category theory and homotopy theory suggest new principles to add to type theory, and type theory can be used in novel ways to formalize these areas of mathematics. In this paper, we formalize a basic result in algebraic topology, that the fundamental group of the circle is the integers. Though simple, this example is interesting for several reasons: it illustrates the new principles in homotopy type …
This is the first of two papers that introduce a deformation theoretic framework to explain and broaden a link between homotopy algebra and probability theory. In this paper, cumulants are proved to coincide with morphisms of homotopy algebras. The sequel paper outlines how the framework presented here can assist in the development of homotopy probability theory, allowing the principles of derived mathematics to participate in classical and noncommutative probability theory.
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 construct Kasparov's bifunctor $KK$ and $E$-theory by stable homotopy theoretic methods. This is motivated by results concerning constructions of bivariant theories on more general categories such as, for example, bornological algebras. The details of the construction have interesting applications to groups of extensions.
The purpose of this paper is to study some obstruction classes induced by a construction of a homotopy-theoretic version of projective TQFT (projective HTQFT for short). A projective HTQFT is given by a symmetric monoidal projective functor whose domain is the cospan category of pointed finite CW-spaces instead of a cobordism category. We construct a pair of projective HTQFT's starting from a $\mathsf{Hopf}^\mathsf{bc}_k$-valued Brown functor where $\mathsf{Hopf}^\mathsf{bc}_k$ is the category of bicommutative Hopf algebras over a field $k$ : the cospanical path-integral and the spanical path-…
In classical fixed point and coincidence theory the notion of Nielsen numbers has proved to be extremely fruitful. Here we extend it to pairs (f_1, f_2) of maps between manifolds of arbitrary dimensions. This leads to estimates of the minimum numbers MCC(f_1, f_2) (and MC(f_1, f_2), resp.) of pathcomponents (and of points, resp.) in the coincidence sets of those pairs of maps which are homotopic to (f_1, f_2). Furthermore we deduce finiteness conditions for MC(f_1, f_2). As an application we compute both minimum numbers explicitly in four concrete geometric sample situations. The Nielsen decom…
The uniform $\mathcal{F}_p$-isomorphism theorem of Quillen gives a comparison map between the Borel equivariant $\mathbf{Z}/p$-cohomology of a space and a limit involving only the Borel equivariant cohomology groups of the same space with the action restricted to the elementary abelian $p$-subgroups. The theorem states that the elements in the kernel are nilpotent, and that every element in the codomain has a power that is in the image. By work of Mathew-Naumann-Noel, for a fixed group and an arbitrary space, there is a uniform bound on the nilpotence degree of the elements in the kernel, and …
We prove that the number of distinct homotopy types of limits of one-parameter semi-algebraic families of closed and bounded semi-algebraic sets is bounded singly exponentially in the additive complexity of any quantifier-free first order formula defining the family. As an important consequence, we derive that the number of distinct homotopy types of semi-algebraic subsets of $\mathbb{R}^k$ defined by a quantifier-free first order formula $Φ$, where the sum of the additive complexities of the polynomials appearing in $Φ$ is at most $a$, is bounded by $2^{(k+a)^{O(1)}}$. This proves a conjectur…
We give a homotopy theoretic characterization of stacks on a site $\cC$ as the {\it homotopy sheaves} of groupoids on $\cC$. We use this characterization to construct a model category in which stacks are the fibrant objects. We compare different definitions of stacks and show that they lead to Quillen equivalent model categories. In addition, we show that these model structures are Quillen equivalent to the $S^2$-nullification of Jardine's model structure on sheaves of simplicial sets on $\cC$.
Let $M$ be a closed, oriented manifold of dimension $d$. Let $LM$ be the space of smooth loops in $M$. Chas and Sullivan recently defined a product on the homology $H_*(LM)$ of degree $-d$. They then investigated other structure that this product induces, including a Batalin -Vilkovisky structure, and a Lie algebra structure on the $S^1$ equivariant homology $H_*^{S^1}(LM)$. These algebraic structures, as well as others, came under the general heading of the "string topology" of $M$. In this paper we will describe a realization of the Chas - Sullivan loop product in terms of a ring spectrum st…
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…
This work continues the study of a homotopy-theoretic construction of the author inspired by the Bott-Taubes integrals. Bott and Taubes constructed knot invariants by integrating differential forms along the fiber of a bundle over the space of knots. Their techniques were later used by Cattaneo et al. to construct real "Vassiliev-type" cohomology classes in spaces of knots in higher-dimensional Euclidean space. By doing this integration via a Pontrjagin-Thom construction, we constructed cohomology classes in the knot space with arbitrary coefficients. We later showed that a refinement of this …
We define homotopy-theoretic invariants of knots in prime 3-manifolds. Fix a knot J in a prime 3-manifold M. Call a knot K in M concordant to J if it cobounds a properly embedded annulus with J in MxI, and call K J-characteristic if there is a degree-one map f:M --> M throwing K onto J and mapping M-K to M-J. These invariants are invariants of concordance and of J-characteristicness when f induces the identity on the fundamental group of M, and may be viewed as extensions of Milnor's invariants. We do not require the knots considered here to be rationally null-homologous or framed.
For a space X, we define Frobenius and Verschiebung operations on the nil-terms NA^{fd} (X) in the algebraic K-theory of spaces, in three different ways. Two applications are included. Firstly, we obtain that the homotopy groups of NA^{fd} (X) are either trivial or not finitely generated as abelian groups. Secondly, the Verschiebung defines a Z[N_x]-module structure on the homotopy groups of NA^{fd} (X), with N_x the multiplicative monoid. We also we give a calculation of the homotopy groups of the nil-terms NA^{fd} (*) after p-completion for an odd prime p as Z_p[N_x]-modules up to dimension …
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 prove a nearly optimal bound on the number of stable homotopy types occurring in a k-parameter semi-algebraic family of sets in $\R^\ell$, each defined in terms of m quadratic inequalities. Our bound is exponential in k and m, but polynomial in $\ell$. More precisely, we prove the following. Let $\R$ be a real closed field and let \[ {\mathcal P} = \{P_1,...,P_m\} \subset \R[Y_1,...,Y_\ell,X_1,...,X_k], \] with ${\rm deg}_Y(P_i) \leq 2, {\rm deg}_X(P_i) \leq d, 1 \leq i \leq m$. Let $S \subset \R^{\ell+k}$ be a semi-algebraic set, defined by a Boolean formula without negations, whose atoms …
We prove that Chern-Weil forms are the only natural differential forms associated to a connection on a principal G-bundle. We use the homotopy theory of simplicial sheaves on smooth manifolds to formulate the theorem and set up the proof. Other arguments come from classical invariant theory. We identify the Weil algebra as the de Rham complex of a specific simplicial sheaf, and similarly give a new interpretation of the Weil model in equivariant de Rham theory. There is an appendix proving a general theorem about set-theoretic transformations of polynomial functors. This paper is dedicated to …
The goal of this thesis is to prove that $π_4(S^3) \simeq \mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ in homotopy type theory. In particular it is a constructive and purely homotopy-theoretic proof. We first recall the basic concepts of homotopy type theory, and we prove some well-known results about the homotopy groups of spheres: the computation of the homotopy groups of the circle, the triviality of those of the form $π_k(S^n)$ with $k < n$, and the construction of the Hopf fibration. We then move to more advanced tools. In particular, we define the James construction which allows us to prove the Freudenthal s…
The aim of this thesis is to give a concise introduction to homotopy type theory, to Aczel's constructive set theory and to simplicial sets and their homotopy theory in particular referring to their standard model structure, showing some of their interactions. The original part of this thesis consists in the final chapter where we introduce in the type theoretic context a definition of weak Tarski universe motivated by categorical models like the one given by simplicial sets. The weakening of this notion, although present in some imprecise form in mathematical folklore was not published before…