A looping-delooping adjunction for topological spaces (Q1688686)

A principal \(G\)-bundle over a space \(X\) is classified up to equivalence by the homotopy class of a map \(X \rightarrow BG\). In a somewhat dual sense Milnor constructed a strict model \(\tilde{\Omega}(X)\) so that morphisms \(\tilde{\Omega}(X) \rightarrow G\) of the topological groups generate all the \(G\)-bundles over \(X\) up to equivalence. This paper shows that for nice spaces \(X\) the relationship between \(\tilde{\Omega}(X)\) and the classifying space functor is that of an adjoint pair. The result requires that both the space \(X\) and the topological group \(G\) be ``nice'' in senses specified in the paper. Roughly these are that the space be connected and admit a countable CW-decomposition with -- if the space is pointed -- the base point a vertex. For the group it should admit the structure of a countable CW-group. The proof consists of a careful analysis of the construction of the loop space and of the classifying space.