Generalized Gottlieb and Whitehead center groups of space forms (Q1625465)

The Gottlieb group \(G_1(X)\subset \pi_1(X)\) is a relevant invariant associated to a space which plays an important role in homotopy theory. These groups originally defined by D. Gottlieb were generalized for a triple \((A, X; f)\) where \(A\), \(X\) are spaces and \(f: A\to X\) is a map from \(A\) into \(X\), and denoted by \(G_1^f(X)\). There is another generalization which are the groups \(G_m(X)\subset \pi_m(X)\). The groups \(G_1(X)\) were first computed for \(X\) a \(K(\pi, 1)\)-space and later by \textit{J. Oprea} [J. Korean Math. Soc. 28, No. 1, 65--78 (1991; Zbl 0736.55011)], for \(X\) a space form. The main goal of the work under review is to compute the groups \(G_1^f(X)\) for \(X=S^{2n+1}/H\) a space form (\(H\) a finite group), and certain spaces \(A\). The authors show: Theorem 2.17: If \(f: A\to X\) with \(1<\mathrm{dim }A=d<\infty\) and \(H^m(A(m-1);\pi_m(X))=0\) for \(1 < m\leq d\) then \(G_ 1^f(X)=\mathcal{Z}_{\pi_1(X)}f_{*}(\pi_1(A))\). Here \(A(m)\) means the \(m\)-th stage of the Moore-Postnikov tower of \(A\) and \(\mathcal{Z}_{\pi_1(X)}f_{*}(\pi_1(A))\) the centralizer of \(f_{*}(\pi_1(A))\) in \(\pi_1(X)\). In the remaining part of the work, the authors consider the generalized Gottlieb groups \(G_m(Y)\). Then they make use of extensive and non-trivial known calculations about the Whitehead product of elements of the homotopy of the spheres and the projective spaces and they provide many calculations of the higher Gottlieb groups and the Whitehead center groups, of the projective spaces and the space form for \(H\) a cyclic group. Of course there will be restrictions on the values of \(m\). They provide a clear description of the state of the art of the problem, and details of the concepts discussed and the proofs.