The homotopy types of gauge groups of nonorientable surfaces and applications to moduli spaces (Q2509814)

For a compact connected Lie group \(G\), let \(P\) be a principal \(G\)-bundle over a closed connected surface \(M\) and let \({\mathcal G}(P)\) denote the gauge group of \(P\). Note that \(M\) is homeomorphic to \(M_m\) for some integer \(m\geq 1\) if \(M\) is a closed connected surface, where \(M_m\) denotes the connected sum of \(m\) copies of \(\mathbb{R}P^2\). Note also that any principal \(G\)-bundle \(P\) over \(M_m\) is trivial if \(G\) is simply connected, and that there are just two equivalence classes of principal \(U(n)\)-bundles over \(M_m\), which is denoted by \({\mathcal G}_0(M_m)\) if it is trivial or by \({\mathcal G}_1(M_m)\) if it is non-trivial. The main purpose of this paper is to determine the homotopy type of \({\mathcal G}(P)\) explicitly when \(M\) is nonorientable surface. More precisely, in this paper, the author proves that there is a homotopy equivalence \[ {\mathcal G}_k(M_m)\simeq\begin{cases} G\times \Omega G\{2\}\times\Big(\prod_{i=2}^m\Omega G\Big) & \mathrm{if }k=0,\\ {\mathcal G}_1(\mathbb{R}P^2)\times\Big(\prod_{i=2}^m\Omega U(n)\Big) & \mathrm{if }k=1\mathrm{ and }G=U(n), \end{cases} \] and that there is a non-trivial fibration sequence \[ \Omega U(n)\{2\}\to {\mathcal G}_1(\mathbb{R}P^2)\to U(n),\leqno{(\dagger)} \] where \(G\{2\}\) denotes the homotopy fiber of the \(2\)nd power map on \(G\). He also shows that \((\dagger)\) splits as \({\mathcal G}_1(\mathbb{R}P^2)\simeq U(n)\times \Omega U(n)\{2\}\) in dimensions \(\leq 2n-3\), and that if \(n\geq 3\) there is an isomorphism \(\pi_j({\mathcal G}_1(\mathbb{R}P^2))\cong \pi_j(U(n))\oplus \pi_j(\Omega U(n)\{2\})\) for \(j\leq 2n-1\). Furthermore, he also obtains the \(p\)-local splitting explicitly. Moreover, as an application, he can also determine the homotopy groups of the moduli spaces of stable bundles up to some dimension explicitly. The proof is based on the careful analysis of several fibration sequences.