Sets of degrees of maps between SU(2)-bundles over the 5-sphere (Q2301823)

The authors compute the mapping degrees of continuous maps between any combination of the two \(\mathrm{SU}(2)\)-bundles \(\mathrm{SU}(3)\) and \(S^5 \times \mathrm{SU}(2)\) over the \(5\)-sphere. Since both bundles have isomorphic integer cohomology rings, the usual cohomological obstructions for the existence of mapping degrees are not applicable. The authors show that the only obstruction in this case is the Steenrod square \(\mathrm{Sq}^2 \colon H^3(X; \mathbb Z_2) \to H^5(X; \mathbb Z_2)\), which is either an isomorphism or the trivial map, provided \(X\) is an \(\mathrm{SU}(2)\)-bundle over the \(5\)-sphere. More concretely, if \(D(M,N)\) denotes the set of mapping degrees between two manifolds \(M\) and \(N\) and \(D(M)=D(M,M)\), then the authors show (see Theorem 1.1) \begin{itemize} \item \(D(S^3 \times S^5)=\mathbb Z\), \item \(D(S^3\times S^5, \mathrm{SU}(3))= 2 \mathbb Z\), \item \(D(\mathrm{SU}(3), S^3 \times S^5) =2 \mathbb Z\), \item \(D(\mathrm{SU}(3)) = 4 \mathbb Z\cup \{2k+1 \colon k \in \mathbb Z\}\). \end{itemize} Note that the last item corrects a mistake in [\textit{T. Püttmann}, Transform. Groups 14, No. 1, 225--247 (2009; Zbl 1169.55003)]. The proof of Theorem 1.1 makes use of the bundle structure of the respective manifolds combined with the mapping degree formula for fiber bundles, see Lemma 4.1.