Cohomology of the spaces of commuting elements in Lie groups of rank two (Q2665192)

The purpose of the paper is to provide an explict formula for the cohomology ring \(H^*(\mathrm{Hom}(\mathbb{Z}^2,G);\mathbb{F})\) where \(\mathbb{F}\) is a field of characteristic zero or prime to the order of the Weil group \(W(G)\) of \(G\), and \(G\) is a simple, simply connected Lie group \(G\) of rank 2. The result is known for \(G=SU(2)\). To complete the list of such groups of rank 2, one should consider the groups \(G = Sp(2),SU(3),G_2\). By computing the cohomology ring for each of these three cases separately, the author obtains the main result which is: Theorem 1.1. For a simply connected simple Lie group \(G\) of rank 2, there is an isomorphism \[H^*(\mathrm{Hom}(\mathbb{Z}^2,G);\mathbb{F})\cong \mathbb{F}\langle a_1^1,a_2^1, a_1^2, a_2^2, b_1,b_2 \rangle/(a_1^1,a_2^1, a_1^2, a_2^2, b_1 ,b_2)^3 +I,\] where \(I\) is generated by \[b_1b_2, b_2^2, a_2^1b_2, a_2^2b_2, a_1^1b_2 + a_2^1b_1, a_1^2b_2 + a_2^2b_1, a_1^1a_2^2+a_1^2a_2^1,\] and \[ |a_i^j|= \begin{cases} 2i+1\, (G=SU(3))\\ 4i-1 \, (G = Sp(2))\\ 8i-5\, (G=G_2), \end{cases} \] \[|b_i|= \begin{cases} 2i\, (G = SU(3))\\ 4i-2\, (G = Sp(2))\\ 8i-6\, (G=G_2). \end{cases} \] In the proof of the theorem above, a main step is the use of general results of the work by \textit{T. J. Baird} [Algebr. Geom. Topol. 7, 737--754 (2007; Zbl 1163.57026)].