Joins, diagonals and Hopf invariants (Q2734868)

This paper is about Hopf invariants which arise when one has maps in the configuration NEWLINE\[NEWLINEX\mathop{\longleftarrow}^\alpha A\mathop{\longleftarrow}^f C\mathop{\longrightarrow}^g B\mathop{\longrightarrow}^\beta YNEWLINE\]NEWLINE together with specified null homotopies for \(\alpha\circ f\) and \(\beta\circ g\). There is a standard Hopf invariant NEWLINE\[NEWLINEc\text{HI}:\Sigma\Omega{\mathcal M}(f,g)\to\Omega X*\Omega Y,NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(\Sigma\) denotes suspensions, \(\Omega\) denotes loop spaces, \({\mathcal M}\) denotes double mapping cylinders, and \(*\) denotes joins. The author investigates \(c\text{HI}\) by constructing a new Hopf invariant NEWLINE\[NEWLINE\lambda\text{HI}:\Sigma\Omega{\mathcal M}(f,g)\to F_\alpha*F_\beta,NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(F\) denotes homotopy fibres. He also uses extended join products, which are maps from \(A*B\) to \(Z*W\) and from \(B*A\) to \(W*Z\) induced by pairs of maps \(\omega:\Sigma A\to\Sigma Z\) and \(k: Z\to W\). Extended joins are used to find decompositions of joins of diagonal maps, which in turn are used to find expressions for \(\lambda\text{HI}\) as sums.NEWLINENEWLINEFor the entire collection see [Zbl 0960.00050].