Lusternik--Schnirelmann category of non-simply connected compact simple Lie groups (Q1779516)

Let \(F\to E\to B\) be a fibre bundle with structure group \(G\), where \(B\) is \((d- 1)\)-connected, finite-dimensional \(CW\) complex, \(d\geq 1\), whose cells are concentrated in dimensions \(0,1,\dots, s\text{\,mod\,}d\) for some \(s\), \(0\leq s\leq d-1\). Denote by \(m\) the minimum length of a sequence of cofibrations \(K_i\to F_{i-1}\to F_i\), \(1\leq i\leq m\), with \(F_0= \{*\}\), \(F_m\) homotopy equivalent to \(F\), and such that, by the action of \(G\), \[ G^{(d(i+ 1)+ s-1)}\times F_j\to F \] is compressible into \(F_{i+j}\). The authors prove that \[ \text{cat\,}X\leq m+{\dim B\over d}. \] They use their result to compute the Lusternik-Schnirelmann (LS) category of non-simply connected Lie groups, and in particular \(\text{cat}(SO(n))\) for \(n\leq 9\). They remark that the Ganea conjecture holds for every connected compact simple Lie group when the LS category is known.