The dual polyhedral product, cocategory and nilpotence (Q1621455)

The \textit{(Lusternik-Schnirelmann) category} \(\mathrm{cat}(X)\) of a path-connected CW complex \(X\) is one less than the minimal cardinality among open covers of \(X\) by sets contractible in \(X\). While this definition in terms of open sets is well motivated from the point of view of critical point theory, the realisation that category is a homotopy invariant led many researchers to seek alternative definitions more amenable to the methods of homotopy theory. Of these, the fibre-cofibre definition due to Ganea and the fat wedge definition due to Whitehead have become the most widespread, and both lend themselves to dualization in the sense of Eckmann-Hilton. Thus we have several alternative approaches to defining \(\mathrm{cocat}(X)\), the \(\mathrm{cocategory}\) of a space \(X\), introduced and studied by Hilton, Ganea, Hopkins (dualizing Ganea's definition), \textit{A. Murillo} and \textit{A. Viruel} [Prog. Math. 196, 323--347 (2001; Zbl 0986.55006)] and \textit{M. Hovey} [Ill. J. Math. 37, No. 2, 224--239 (1993; Zbl 0802.55003)] (both dualizing Whitehead's definition), amongst others. It has long been known that \(\mathrm{cat}(X)\leq 1\) if and only if \(X\) is a co-\(H\)-space, and Whitehead showed that if \(\mathrm{cat}(X)\leq c\) and \(G\) is any grouplike space then the group \([X,G]\) of homotopy classes is nilpotent of class \(\leq c\). Dually, all incarnations of cocategory satisfy that \(\mathrm{cocat}(X)\leq 1\) if and only if \(X\) is an \(H\)-space, and that if \(X\) is \(1\)-connected then \(\mathrm{nil}(\Omega X)\leq \mathrm{cocat}(X)\). Here the \textit{homotopy nilpotency} \(\mathrm{nil}(G)\) of a path-connected \(H\)-space \(G\) is defined to be the minimal \(k\) such that all iterated Samelson products of length \(> k\) vanish in the homotopy of \(G\). In this paper, the author settles an old problem raised by Ganea by showing that \(\mathrm{nil}(\Omega X)\) equals \(\mathrm{wcocat}(X)\), the weak version of Hovey's cocategory. This implies that the Hovey and Murillo-Viruel definitions of weak cocategory coincide on \(1\)-connected spaces. The methods developed allow for explicit calculations of \(\mathrm{nil}(G)\) for most quasi-\(p\)-regular exceptional Lie groups (the only remaining cases being \(G_2\) at \(p=3\) and \(F_4\) and \(E_6\) at \(p=5\)), and non-modular \(p\)-compact groups. This extends results of \textit{S. Kaji} and \textit{D. Kishimoto} [Math. Z. 264, No. 1, 209--224 (2010; Zbl 1185.55007)] and \textit{D. Kishimoto} [Homology Homotopy Appl. 11, No. 1, 61--79 (2009; Zbl 1181.55011)]. These results are deduced from more general results about homotopy decompositions of polyhedral products. Given a polyhedral product \((\underline{X},\underline{A})^K\) over \(K\) with vertex set \([m]\), an inclusion \(I\subseteq J\) of proper subsets of \([m]\) induces a map \((\underline{X},\underline{A})^{K_J}\to (\underline{X},\underline{A})^{K_I}\) of polyhedral products over the corresponding full sub-complexes of \(K\). The author defines the \textit{dual polyhedral product} \((\underline{X},\underline{A})^K_D\) as a homotopy inverse limit over such maps. There is a map \((\underline{X},\underline{A})^K\to (\underline{X},\underline{A})^K_D\) from a polyhedral product to its dual, which splits after taking based loops, and leads to more refined decompositions in the case of \(\Omega(\underline{CX},\underline{X})^K\) and \(\Omega(\underline{X},\underline{\ast})^K\) when \(K\) is totally homology fillable. In the particular case when \(K\) is discrete on \(m\) points and \((X_i,A_i)=(X,*)\) for all \(i\), this gives the map \(\bigvee_{i=1}^m X\to P^m(X)\) from the wedge to the thin product appearing in Hovey's definition of cocategory. Here the author is able to give an explicit description of the homotopy fibre and its map to the wedge in terms of iterated Whitehead products, which furnishes the results on cocategory cited above.