Cocycles of nilpotent quotients of free groups (Q2176576)

Let \(F\) be a free group of rank \(q\) and let \(F_k\) for \(k\geq 1\) be the elements of the lower central series. The groups \(H_2((F/F_k; \mathbb{Z})\) and \(H_3((F/F_k; \mathbb{Z})\) are known and they are free abelian groups of finite rank. The goal of the work under review is to write bases for \(H^2((F/F_k; \mathbb{Z})\) and \(H^3((F/F_k; \mathbb{Z})\) using Massey products. It is shown: Theorem 3.2. (I) Every \(j\)-fold Massey product with \(j<k\) is zero. In particular, for any standard index \(i_1,\dots,i_k\in \mathcal{U}_k\), the \(k\)-fold Massey product \(\langle \alpha_{i_1}, \ldots, \alpha_{i_k}\rangle\) is uniquely defined in \(H^2(F/F_k; \mathbb{Z})\) and represented by a 2-cocycle given in Lemma 3.1. (II) The second cohomology \(H^2(F/F_k; \mathbb{Z})\cong \mathbb{Z}^{N_k}\) is spanned by the \(k\)-fold Massey products \( \langle \alpha_{i_1}, \ldots, \alpha_{i_k}\rangle\) running over all the standard sequences \((i_1,\ldots,i_k)\in \mathcal{U}_k\). Theorem 3.3. For any \(k \leq \ell \leq 2k-2\), consider the projection \(p_{\ell}:F/F_{\ell}\to F/F_k\). Then, there are homomorphisms \({s}_{\ell}: Z^3(F/F_{\ell} \to Z^3(F/F_k;\mathbb{Z}\) \(\mathbb{n})\) such that \[\alpha_{s}\cup\langle \alpha_{i_1},\ldots,\alpha_{i_{\ell}}\rangle=p_{\ell}^{*}\circ s_{\ell}(\alpha_s\cup \langle \alpha_{i_1},\ldots,\alpha_{i_{\ell}}\rangle) \in Z^3(F/F_{\ell}; \mathbb{Z})\] for any \((i_1,\ldots,i_{\ell})\in \mathcal{U}_{\ell}, 1\leq s \leq q\), and the following set of \(3\)-cocycles is a basis of the third cohomology \(H^3(F/F_k; \mathbb{Z})\cong \oplus_{ \ell=k}^{2k-2}\mathbb{Z}^{qN_{\ell}-N_{\ell+1}}\). \[\bigcup_{k\leq \ell\leq 2k-2} \{ s_{\ell}(\alpha_{s}\cup\langle \alpha_{i_1},\ldots,\alpha_{i_{\ell}}\rangle) \ | \ \ (i_1,\ldots,i_{\ell})\in \mathcal{U}_k, \ 1\leq s \leq q, \ (i_1,\ldots,i_{\ell}s)\notin \mathcal{U}_{\ell+1}\}.\] Making use of the theorems above, several relevant results concerning the Theorem of Fenn-Sjerve on Massey products, Milnor invariants and Massey products, Johnson homomorphisms and Massey products, vanishing conditions of Morita homomorphisms are reproved. The last section is devoted to giving an algorithm to describe the \(3\)-cocycles of the cohomology of \(F/F_k\). A short and clear exposition about the Magnus expansion and higher Massey products is provided at the beginning of the work.