Rationally 4-periodic biquotients (Q1663771)

The author determines the rational homotopy type of 4-periodic manifolds and among them the diffeomorphism classes of biquotients. Recall that an \(n\)-dimensional CW-complex, \(M\), is 4-periodic if there is \(e\in H^4(M;\mathbb Q)\) such that the cupping with \(e\), from \(H^*(M;\mathbb Q)\) to \(H^{*+4}(M;\mathbb Q)\), is injective for \(*\leq n-4\) and surjective for \(* < n-4\). Also, a simply connected space, \(X\), is elliptic if the vector spaces, \(H^*(X;\mathbb Q)\) and \(\pi_{*}(X;\mathbb Q)\), are finite dimensional. In the paper under review, the author proves that any rationally elliptic and 4-periodic, simply connected CW-complex of dimension \(n\), \(n\geq 6\), whose cohomology algebra is not singly generated, has the homotopy type of \(\mathbb H P^m \times S^3\), \(\mathbb H P^m\times S^2\) or \(S^3\times S^3\). In a previous paper [Math. Ann. 368, No. 3--4, 1493--1541 (2017; Zbl 1390.57022)] the author showed that a biquotient with the rational homotopy type of \(S^3\times S^3\) is diffeomorphic to \(S^3\times S^3\). In this paper, he gives a similar classification for \(\mathbb H P^m\times S^3\) and a partial classification for \(\mathbb H P^m\times S^2\).