The module structure of the equivariant \(K\)-theory of the based loop group of \(SU(2)\) (Q401496)

Let \(G=SU(2)\) and let \(\Omega G\) denote the space of based loops in \(SU(2)\), which are viewed as \(G\)-spaces with the action induced by conjugation. The purpose of this paper is to present a concrete computation of the module structure of \(K^*_G(\Omega G)\). The result is: \[ K^{\text{even}}_G(\Omega G)\cong \prod^\infty_{r=0}R(G) \qquad \text{and} \qquad K^{\text{odd}}_G(\Omega G)=0. \] It is announced that a result on the product structure will be provided in another paper by the authors [Q. J. Math. 65, No. 2, 517--553 (2014; Zbl 1301.55002)], which gives a complete description of \(K^*_G(\Omega G)\). For the proof of the formula above the authors use a method for analyzing loop spaces due to \textit{A. Pressley} and \textit{G. Segal} [Loop groups. Oxford Mathematical Monographs. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1986; Zbl 0618.22011)]. In so doing we need to extend it to include the equivariant case. The key to the authors' approach is considering polynomial loops in addition to the usual ones. Letting \(\Omega_{\text{poly}}G\) denote the subspace of these polynomial loops in \(\Omega G\), firstly we find that there holds \(\Omega_{\text{poly}}G\simeq_G\Omega G\). This means that the computation of \(K^*_G(\Omega G)\) can be referred to that of \(K^*_G(\Omega_{\text{poly}} G)\) and also this \(\Omega_{\text{poly}} G\) has an equivariant filtration by the subspaces \(\Omega_{\text{poly}, r} G\) consisting of polynomial loops of degree \(\leq r\), which provides an efficient means for computing \(K^{*}_G(\Omega_{\text{poly}} G)\) and leads us to the conclusion above.