On the ranks of homotopy groups of two-cones (Q1591086)

By now it is a well-established fact in rational homotopy theory [\textit{Y. Félix}, La dichotomie elliptique-hyperbolique en homotopie rationnelle, Astérisque 176 (1989; Zbl 0691.55001); \textit{Y. Félix, S. Halperin} and \textit{J. C. Thomas}, Rational homotopy theory, Grad. Texts Math. 205 (2001)] that spaces come in two flavors; elliptic and hyperbolic. Elliptic spaces have finite dimensional total rational homotopy \(\pi_*(X) \otimes \mathbb Q\), while hyperbolic spaces have infinite dimensional \(\pi_*(X) \otimes \mathbb Q\). Moreover, the rational homotopy groups of hyperbolic spaces grow exponentially. In a previous paper [Topology 37, No. 6, 1363-1370 (1998; Zbl 0935.55004)], the author gave a criterion that he called ``condition (AH)'' which, when satisfied by a finite \(1\)-connected complex, allowed bounds (in terms of the radius of convergence of the space's Poincaré series) to be given on the growth rate. Here, the author provides another condition (called the Poincaré-Koszul criterion) which implies that condition (AH) holds. Furthermore, he shows that a space which is a two-cone (i.e. the cofibre of a map between suspensions) satisfies the Poincaré-Koszul criterion and, hence, condition (AH). The author also specializes from the notion of an inert element to that of what the author calls, a strongly inert element, arriving at another case where the Poincaré-Koszul criterion holds.