Characteristic classes and obstruction theory for infinite loop spaces (Q1823510): Difference between revisions

It is well known that, for an (m-1)-connected space Y, the primary obstruction to extend a map g: \(A\to Y\) to a map over \(X\supset A\) can be expressed as \(\pm \delta g*(i^ m(Y))\) using the characteristic class \(i^ m(Y)\in H^ m(Y,\pi_ m)\), where \(\pi_ m=\pi_ m(Y)\). In this paper the author shows that the above description can be extended to arbitrary dimension n for Y all of whose k-invariants \(k^{n+1}\) are of finite order \(s_ n\). Explicitly, he introduces, for each n and for the Postnikov n-stage \(Y\to^{\alpha_ n}Y[n]\), the n-dimensional characteristic map \(f_ n: Y\to^{\alpha_ n}Y[n]\to^{\psi}Y[n- 1]\times K(\pi_ n,n)\to^{p\quad roj}K(\pi_ n,n),\) where \(\psi\) is a lifting of \(p_ n: Y[n]\to Y[n-1]\), which induces the multiplication by \(s_ n\) on \(\pi_ n\), and defines the n-dimensional characteristic class \(j^ n(Y)\) to be \(f^*_ n(i^ nK(\pi_ n,n))\). In terms of these classes his main results are: Let \(\bar g\) be an extension of g: \(A\to Y\) to the n-skeleton of \(X\supset A\) and let \(\zeta^{n+1}(g)\) be the cohomology class \(\in H^{n+1}(X,A;\pi_ n)\) of the obstruction cocycle \(s_ nc^{n+1}(\bar g)\); then, \(\zeta^{n+1}(g)=(-1)^ n\delta g*(j^ n(Y))\) and, provided the multiplication by \(s_ n\) on \(H^{n+1}(X,A;\pi_ n)\) is injective, g extendible to the n-skeleton can be extended to the \((n+1)\)-skeleton if and only if \(\zeta^{n+1}(g)=0\).