Integral cohomology of configuration spaces of the sphere (Q1625463)

For a topological space \(X\), let \(F_n(X)\) denote the the ordered configuration space of \(n\) distinct points in \(X\) defined by \(F_n(X)=\{(x_1,\dots ,x_n)\in X^n: x_i\not= x_j\text{ if }i\not= j\}\). The symmetric group \(S_n\) of \(n\) letters acts on \(F_n(X)\) freely by permutation of the coordinates, and let \(C_n(X)\) be unordered configuration space of \(n\) distinct points in \(X\) defined by the orbit space \(C_n(X)=F_n(X)/S_n\). In this paper the author studies the cohomology ring \(H^*(C_n(S^2);R)\) for \(R=\mathbb{Z}/p\) (\(p\) prime) or \(R=\mathbb{Z}\). In particular, he determines the mod \(p\) Betti number \(\dim_{\mathbb{Z}/p}H^r(C_n(S^2);\mathbb{Z}/p)\) for any prime \(p\) by using a cellular structure of \(C_n(S^2)\) due to Napolitano. Moreover, he computes the cohomology group \(H^r(C_n(S^2);\mathbb{Z})\) explicitly for \(r\leq 3\) and he shows that \(H^r(C_n(S^2);\mathbb{Z})\) is a finite group and contains no elements of order \(p^2\) for \(r\geq 4\).