Representation types and \(2\)-primary homotopy groups of certain compact Lie groups (Q1408513)

This paper completes a program to compute the \(\nu_{1}\)-periodic homotopy groups of all compact simple Lie groups at all primes, by computing (up to some extensions) the \(2\)-primary \(\nu_{1}\)-periodic homotopy groups of \(E_{7}\) and \(E_{8}\). The basis for the computation lies in showing that for these groups one can use a result of Bousfield showing how the \(2\)-primary \(\nu_{1}\)-homotopy of a compact Lie group can be obtained from its representation ring with the decomposition with respect to representsation type and its exterior power operations, provided that a certain technical condition is satisfied. The author shows that this condition is satisfied by a simple compact Lie group if and only if the group is not \(E_{6}\) or \(\text{Spin}(4k+2)\) with \(k\) not a power of \(2\). The methods involve detailed computations with representations and the Bendersky-Thompson spectral sequence. The actual values for the groups are quite simple in form.