Product decomposition of loop spaces of configuration spaces (Q1612193)

Let \(M\) be a topological space, \(G\) a group acting freely on \(M\), and \(Gm\) denote the orbit space of an element \(m\in M\). In this paper, the author studies the orbit configuration space \(F_G(M,k)\) defined by \[ F_G(M,k)=\{(m_1,\cdots ,m_k)\in M^k: Gm_i\not= Gm_j \text{ for }i\not= j\}. \] Such spaces are one of the generalizations of the ordinary configuration spaces. Indeed, if \(G\) is a trivial group, the space \(F_G(M,k)\) coincides with the usual configuration space \(F(M,k)=\{(m_1,\cdots ,m_k)\in M^k: m_i\not= m_j \text{ for }i\not= j\}.\) The main purpose of this paper is to exhibit product decompositions of the loop space of \(F(\mathbb K \text{P}^n,k)\) for \(\mathbb K =\mathbb R, \mathbb C, \mathbb H\). In particular, he shows that there is a homotopy equivalence \(\Omega F(\mathbb K \text{P}^{n-1},k)\simeq G^k\times \Omega F_{G}(S^{d(\mathbb K)n-1},k)\), where we take \(d(\mathbb K)=\dim_{\mathbb R}\mathbb K\) and the group \(G\) is \(\mathbb Z/2\) or \(S^1\) or \(S^3\) according to \(\mathbb K =\mathbb R\) or \(\mathbb C\) or \(\mathbb H\).