Homotopy-commutativity in spinor groups (Q5930012)

Let \(G\) be a topological group and \(S\), \(S'\) subsets of \(G\) which contain the identity. The sets \(S\) and \(S'\) are said to satisfy homotopy-commutativity if the commutator map \(c\colon S\wedge S'\rightarrow G, (x,y)\mapsto xyx^{-1}y^{-1}\) is null homotopic. In this paper the homotopy-commutativity of spinor groups is described. If \(SO(n)\) and \(SO(m)\) homotopy-commute in \(SO(n+m-1)\), then the pair \((n,m)\) is called \(SO\)-irregular and otherwise \(SO\)-regular. Similarly if \(Spin(n)\) and \(Spin(m)\) homotopy-commute in \(Spin(n+m-1)\), then \((n,m)\) is called spin-irregular and otherwise spin-regular. In this paper the following main results are proved: Theorem 1. Let neither \(n-1\) nor \(m-1\) be a power of 2 and \(n+m\neq 4\) or 8. If \(n\) or \(m\) is even or if \(\left(\begin{matrix} n+m+-1\cr n-1 \end{matrix} \right)\equiv 0~mod~2\) then \((n,m)\) is spin-regular. Theorem 2. If \(n=3\) and \(m\equiv 1\bmod 4\) then \((3,m)\) is spin-irregular.