Self-homotopy equivalences and cofibrations (Q2401572)

Let \(\mathcal E(X)\) denote the group of homotopy classes of homotopy self-equivalences of a space \(X=B\cup_{\alpha}e^{n}\) obtained by a cell attachment by a map \(\alpha:S^{n-1}\to B\). Let \[ N\mathcal E(X)=\min\Big\{k\,\mid\,\mathcal A_{\sharp}^{k}(X)=\mathcal E(X)\Big\} \] where \(\mathcal A_{\sharp}^{k}(X)=\{f\in[X,X]\,\mid\,f_{\sharp}:\pi_{i}(X)=\pi_{i}(X) \text{ for any } i\leq k\}\), and \([X,X]\) denotes the monoid of homotopy classes of self-maps of the space \(X\). Consider the following cofibration sequence \[ S^{m-1}\overset{\gamma}{\longrightarrow}B\overset{i}{\longrightarrow}B\cup_{\gamma}e^{m}\overset{}{\longrightarrow}S^{m} \] \noindent The purpose of this paper is to relate the two numbers \(N\mathcal E(B\cup_{\gamma}e^{m})\) and \(N\mathcal E(B)\). More precisely the authors prove that if \(m\geq 3\) and \(B\) is a simply connected CW-complex with \(\dim B\leq m-2\), then \[ N\mathcal E(B\cup_{a\gamma}e^{m})\leq N\mathcal E(B) \] where \(\gamma:S^{n-1}\to B\) is a generator of a direct summand \(\mathbb Z\subset\pi_{m-1}(B)\) and \(a\neq 0\) is an integer. Moreover if \(\pi_{m-1}(B)\cong\mathbb Z\), then equality holds. As an application the authors obtain the following results \[ \begin{aligned} N\mathcal E(S^{m}\times S^{n}) = & n, \quad 2\leq m\leq n \\ N\mathcal E(\mathbb CP^{n}) = & 2, \quad N\mathcal E(\mathbb HP^{n}) = 4, \quad2\geq n \\ N\mathcal E(\mathbb CP^{m}\times\mathbb CP^{n}) = & 2, \quad N\mathcal E(\mathbb HP^{m}\times\mathbb HP^{n} ) =4,\quad 2\leq m\leq n \end{aligned} \] Rational versions of the previous results are also studied by using the models of Sullivan and Quillen provided that the space \(X\) is simply connected of finite type. Consequently it is shown that if \(X_{0}\) denotes the rationalized space of \(X\), then under the condition of \(\dim B\leq m-2\) and If \(\gamma_{0}\neq 0\in \pi_{m-1}(B_{0})\), we have \[ N\mathcal E((B\cup_{a\gamma}e^{m})_{0})\leq N\mathcal E(B_{0}) \] In particular, if \(\pi_{m-1}(B_{0})\cong\mathbb Q\), then \(N\mathcal E((B\cup_{a\gamma}e^{m})_{0})=N\mathcal E(B_{0})\).