Lusternik--Schnirelmann category of a sphere-bundle over a sphere. (Q1811546)

This paper is concerned with Problem 2 ('Is \(cat (X\times S^n)=cat(X)+1\) true for any finite complex \(X\) and \(n\geq 1\)?') and Problem 4 on the category of the total space of a sphere bundle over a sphere of the Ganea list [\textit{T. Ganea}, Lect. Notes Math. 249, 23--30 (1971; Zbl 0237.55009)]. The author exhibited a total space \(E\) of a fibre bundle over \(S^t\) with fibre \(S^r\), where \(r,t\geq 1\), satisfying \(cat (E) = cat (E\times S^n)\) in his earlier paper [Topology 41, 695--723 (2002; Zbl 0996.55003)]. Let \(Q\) be a once-punctured submanifold of \(E\). The main result of the paper under review, which is too technical to be stated here, yields a complete determination of \(\text{cat} (E), \text{cat} (E\times S^n), \text{cat} (Q)\) and \(\text{cat} (Q\times S^n)\) in terms of primary homotopy invariants of the characteristic map of the bundle. The paper also simplifies the author's paper [loc. cit.] and provides more examples of manifolds \(X\) with \(cat(X)=cat(X\times S^n)\).