Coverings in the category of principal bundles (Q2041599)

The main object of this paper is to study regular coverings in the category of smooth principal bundles \(\xi = (E, p, B, G)\) with connected bases \(B\) and structural groups \(G\). A smooth principal bundle is a quadruple \(\xi = (E, p, B, G)\), where \(E\) and \(B\) are smooth manifolds, \(p\colon E \rightarrow B\) is a smooth mapping, and \(G\) is a Lie group such that the following conditions hold: -- for any point \(a\in B\), there exist a neighbourhood \(U \subseteq B\) and a diffeomorphism \(\zeta_ U \colon U \times G \rightarrow p^{-1}(U)\) such that \( p \circ \zeta_U (b, g) = b\) for all \(b \in U\) and \(g\in G\); the mapping \(\zeta_U\) is called a chart of the bundle \(\xi\); the set of all such charts forms an atlas \(A(\xi)\), -- for any charts \(\zeta_U, \zeta_V \in A(\xi)\) with non-empty intersection \(V\cap U\), there exists a smooth mapping \(\zeta_{V U}\colon V \cap U \rightarrow G\) which satisfies the equality \(\zeta_U (b, g) = \zeta_V (b, \zeta_{V U} (b)g)\). Here \(B\) is called the base of the bundle \(\xi\), \(E\) the total space, \(p\colon E\rightarrow B\) the projection, and \(G\) the structural group. \(\zeta_U (b, g) \cdot g_0 = \zeta_U (b, gg_0)\) for all \(\zeta_U \in A(\xi), b \in U\) and \(g, g_0\in G\) defines a right action of the group \(G\) on \(E\). Let \(\mathcal{B}\) be the category whose objects are principal bundles and morphisms are triples consisting of homomorphisms of the structural groups \(\gamma \colon \hat{G} \rightarrow G\), smooth mappings of the bases \( \beta\colon \hat{B} \rightarrow B\) and total spaces \(\varepsilon\colon \hat{E} \rightarrow E\). If \(\hat{\xi}= (\hat{E}, \hat{p}, \hat{B}, \hat{G})\) and \(\xi = (E, p, B, G)\) are objects of the category \(\mathcal{B}\), a morphism \(\kappa \colon \hat{\xi}\rightarrow \xi\) is a triple \(\kappa = (\gamma, \varepsilon, \beta)\) which consists of smooth mappings \(\varepsilon \colon \hat{E}\rightarrow E\), \( \beta\colon \hat{B}\rightarrow B\) and a homomorphism of Lie groups \(\gamma \colon \hat{G}\rightarrow G\) such that \(p\circ \varepsilon=\beta\circ \hat{p}\) and \(\varepsilon(\hat{v}.\hat{g})=\varepsilon(\hat{v}).\gamma(\hat{g})\). A covering of a principal bundle \(\xi = (E, p, B, G)\) in the category \(\mathcal{B}\) is a triple \(q = (\hat{\xi},\kappa, \xi)\), where \(\hat{\xi}\) is a bundle as an object of the category \(\mathcal{B}\), and \(\kappa = (\gamma, \varepsilon, \beta) \colon \hat{\xi}\rightarrow \xi \) is a morphism which consists of covering mappings \(\gamma \colon \hat{G}\rightarrow G\), \(\varepsilon \colon \hat{E}\rightarrow E\) and \(\beta \colon \hat{B}\rightarrow B\). Moreover, \(q\) is said to be regular, if such are the coverings \((\hat{G}, \gamma, G)\), \((\hat{E}, \varepsilon, E)\) and \((\hat{B},\beta,B)\) of the smooth manifolds \(G\), \(E\) and \(B\). Note that any covering of a smooth principal bundle consists of smooth coverings, by definition. In the present paper the authors investigate the category of regular coverings of a given smooth principal bundle. The main results of the paper are the construction of an invariant of a regular covering which is a subsequence of the homotopy sequence of the base bundle, the existence theorem of a covering with a given invariant; criteria for morphisms and isomorphisms; and a theorem on the automorphism group of a given covering.