Length of a chain composed by certain monoids of self maps (Q820631)

For a connected based space \(X\), let \([X,X]\) (resp. \(\mathcal{E}(X)\)) denote the set of all based homotopy classes of a self maps (resp. self homotopy equivalences) of \(X\). The set \([X,X]\) (resp. \(\mathcal{E}(X)\)) is a monoid (resp. group) whose multiplication is induced from the composition of maps. For each integer \(n\geq 0\), let \(\mathcal{A}^n_{\sharp}(X)\subset [X,X]\) denote the submonoid of all homotopy classes \(f\in [X,X]\) such that \(f\) induces an isomorphism on \(\pi_i(X)\) for any \(0\leq i\leq n\). Let \(N\mathcal{E}(X)\) denote the self-closeness number of \(X\) given by \[ N\mathcal{E}(X)=\min \{n: \mathcal{A}^n_{\sharp}(X)=\mathcal{E}(X)\}, \] and let \(\mathcal{L}_{\mathcal{E}(X)}\) be the self-length of \(X\) defined by the number of strict inclusions of of the following filtration: \[ \mathcal{E}(X) \subset \mathcal{A}_{\sharp}(X)=\mathcal{A}^{\infty}_{\sharp}(X)\subset \cdots \subset \mathcal{A}^1_{\sharp}(X)\subset \mathcal{A}^0_{\sharp}(X)=[X,X]. \] In this paper, the authors prove that the self-length \(\mathcal{L}_{\mathcal{E}(X)}\) is a homotopy invariant and they obtain the close connection between \(\mathcal{L}_{\mathcal{E}(X)}\) and \(N\mathcal{E}(X)\). In particular, they determine these two invariants explicitly for several spaces \(X\) (e.g. \(X=S^n\), \(S^n\times S^{n+\epsilon}\) \((\epsilon =0,1)\), \(M(G,n)\), \(\mathbb{K}P^n\), \(\mathbb{K}P^m\times \mathbb{K}P^m\) \((\mathbb{K}=\mathbb{C},\ \mathbb{H})\)).