The rational homology ring of the based loop space of the gauge groups and the spaces of connections on a four-manifold (Q2202817)

This paper mainly contains two parts. In Section 2 the author discusses the ranks of the homotopy groups of a simply connected closed 4-dimensional manifold \(M\). She reviews known results on \(\pi_*(M)\) and proves that the ranks of \(\pi_*(M)\) depend only on the second Betti number \(b_2(M)\) of \(M\) by constructing a minimal free Lie model of \(M\). In Section 3 the author considers the rational homology ring of gauge groups and related spaces. Let \(G\) be a compact, semisimple, simply connected Lie group and let \(\pi:P\to M\) be a principal \(G\)-bundle over \(M\). Then the gauge group \(\mathcal{G}\) is the topological group of \(G\)-equivariant automorphisms of \(P\) that induce the identity map on \(M\), and the pointed gauge group \(\mathcal{G}_0\) is the subgroup of automorphisms that restrict to the identity map on the fiber over the base point of \(M\). According to Atiyah-Bott and Gottlieb, \(\mathcal{G}_0\simeq\text{Map}_*(M,G)\). Denote the space of connections on \(P\) by \(\mathcal{A}\), the space of irreducible connections by \(\mathcal{A}^*\) and the center of \(G\) by \(Z(G)\). Let \(\tilde{\mathcal{B}}=\mathcal{A}/\mathcal{G}_0\) and \(\mathcal{B}^*=\mathcal{A}^*/(\mathcal{G}/Z(G))\). Assuming \(\mathcal{G}\) is connected, the author applies the Milnor-Moore Theorem to obtain the rational homology rings \(H_*(\Omega\tilde{\mathcal{B}};\mathbb{Q})\) and \(H_*(\Omega\mathcal{B}^*;\mathbb{Q})\), which depend only on \(b_2(M)\) and \(\pi_*(G)\). Finally, as examples the author calculates \(H_*(\Omega\tilde{\mathcal{B}};\mathbb{Q})\) and \(H_*(\Omega\mathcal{B}^*;\mathbb{Q})\) for the cases when \(P\) is a principal \(SU(2)\)-bundle over a 4-manifold and a principal \(SU(3)\)-bundle over a spin 4-manifold.