Suspension splittings and self-maps of flag manifolds (Q1734944)

For a compact connected Lie group $G$ and a maximal torus $T\subset G$ the authors consider the homogeneous space $G/T$. They are interested in the set $[G/T,G/T]$ of homotopy classes of self-maps of $G/T$. It is shown that if $G$ is simply connected, then there is a bijection between $[G/T,G/T]$ and the Cartesian product $[G/T,G]\times\mathrm{Im}(r)$, where $r:[G/T,G/T]\rightarrow\mathrm{End}(H^*(G/T))$ sends the homotopy class of a self-map to the induced cohomology ring endomorphism. \par In order to study the group $[G/T,G]$ the authors use the identification $[G/T,G]\cong[G/T,\Omega BG]\cong[\Sigma G/T,BG]$ and decompose the suspension $\Sigma G/T$ into a wedge of some ``smaller'' spaces. The method of producing these decompositions includes identifying some idempotents in $\mathrm{End}(H^*(G/T))$, coming from Adams operations on the classifying spaces $BT$ and $BG$ and from the action of the Weyl group $N(T)/T$ on $G/T$. The decomposition of $\Sigma G/T$ and the calculation of $[G/T,G]$ are illustrated with the examples in which $G$ equals $SU(3)$, $SU(4)$, $Sp(2)$ and $G_2$.