Homotopy types of gauge groups related to \(S^{3}\)-bundles over \(S^{4}\) (Q1725668)

Let \(\mathbb{H}\) be the quaternionic skew field and let \(\rho,\sigma :S^3\to \mathrm{SO}(4)\) denote the homomorphisms given by \(\rho (q)q^{\prime}=q\cdot q^{\prime}\cdot q^{-1}\) and \(\sigma (q)q^{\prime}=q\cdot q^{\prime}\) for \(q,q^{\prime}\in S^3\), where we identify \(S^3=\{q\in \mathbb{H}:| q| =1\}\) and \(q\cdot q^{\prime}\) represents quaternionic multiplication. It is known that \(\pi_3(\mathrm{SO}(4))=\mathbb{Z}\oplus \mathbb{Z}\) with generators \(\rho\) and \(\sigma\). For a pair \((l,m)\in \mathbb{Z}\oplus \mathbb{Z}\), let \(M_{l,m}\) denote the total space of the \(S^3\)-bundle over \(S^4\) with its characteristic element \(l\rho+m\sigma \in \pi_3(\mathrm{SO}(4))\). Note that \(M_{l,m}\) is a \(2\)-connected closed orientable manifold and that it is homotopy equivalent to a CW complex of the form \(S^3\cup_me^4\cup e^7\). In particular, if \(| m| =1\), \(M_{l,m}\) is homotopy equivalent to \(S^7\). If \(m=0\), then \(M_{l,0}\) is sometimes called a twisted product and written by \(M_{l,0}=S^3\tilde{\times}_l S^4\). From now on, we assume that \(G\) is a simply connected simple compact connected Lie group such that \(\pi_6(G)=0\). Then one can show that \(Prin_G(M_{l,m})\cong \mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z}\), where \(Prin_G(M)\) denotes the set of isomorphism classes of principal \(G\)-bundles over \(M\). For each \(k\in \mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z}=Prin_G(M_{l,m})\), let \(P_k\to M_{l,m}\) denote the corresponding principal \(G\)-bundle over \(M_{i,m}\) and we denote by \(\mathcal{G}^k(M_{l,m})\) the gauge group of \(P_k\). Similarly, let \(Q_k\to S^4\) be a principal \(G\)-bundle over \(S^4\) with its second Chern class \(k\in \mathbb{Z}\) and we denote by \(\mathcal{G}^k(S^4)\) the corresponding gauge group. In this paper, the author studies the classification problem of homotopy types of gauge groups \(\{\mathcal{G}^k(M_{l,m}):k\in \mathbb{Z}/m\mathbb{Z}\}\). More precisely, when \(m=0\) she shows that there is a homotopy equivalence \(\mathcal{G}^k(M_{l,0})\simeq \mathcal{G}^k(S^4)\times \mathrm{Map}_*(Y_l,G)\) for some recognizable space \(Y_l\). When \(m\geq 2\) and \(p\geq 5\) is an odd prime, she also obtains \(p\)-local homotopy decompositions of \(\mathcal{G}^0(M_{l,m})\) (if \(\nu_p(m)=0\)) and \(\Omega \mathcal{G}^k(M_{l,m})\) (if \(\nu_p(m)\geq 1\)) explicitly, where \(\nu_p(m)\) denotes the \(p\)-adic valuation of \(m\) at \(p\). Finally, she considers the case \(m=1\). In this case, \(M_{l,1}=S^7\) and she also obtains several interesting results for \(\mathcal{G}^k(S^7)\) (the details omitted).