The Samelson product and rational homotopy for gauge groups (Q2479817)

Given a principal bundle \(P\to S^m \) over am \(m\)-dimensional sphere with the structure group \(K\) one associates the evaluation fibration \(C(P,K)^K \to K\), where the total space is the gauge group consisting of all \(K\)-equivariant maps from \(P\) to \(K\). The fibre in this bundle is equal to the pointed gauge group. If the base is the sphere it is homotopy equivalent to the pointed maps \(S^m\to K\). Hence the connecting homomorphisms in the evaluation fibration are homomorphisms \(\delta_n:\pi_n(K)\to \pi_{n+m-1}(K)\). The main result of the paper under review states that the value of the connecting homomorphism is given by the Samelson product: \(\delta_n(a)= -\langle a,b\rangle\), where \(b\in \pi_{m-1}(K)\) is the element defining the bundle \(P.\)