No label defined (Q4935749)

The homotopy type of a connected simple CW-complex \(X\) is determined by its homotopy groups \(\pi_mX\) and its Postnikov \(k\)-invariants \(k^{m+1} (X)\in H^{m+1} (X[m-1]\); \(\pi_mX)\), where \(X\to X[m]\) is the \(m\)-th Postnikov section of \(X\). Therefore the \(k\)-invariants contain important information about \(X\), which among other things is reflected in the behavior of the Hurewicz map: if \(k^{m+1}(X)\) has finite order \(\rho\), then there is a homomorphism \(\theta: H_m(X; \mathbb{X})\to \pi_mX\) such that \(\pi_mX @>hm>>H_m (X;\mathbb{X}) @>\theta>> \pi X\) is multiplication by \(\rho\). It has been known for some time that the \(k\)-invariants of an \(H\)-space of finite type are of finite order. The present paper extends this result in a certain range to \(H\)-spaces which are not necessarily of finite type: explicit upper bounds for the order of \(k^{m+1}(X)\) are given for \((n-1)\)-connected \(H\)-spaces \(X\) in the range \(n+1\leq m\leq 2n\), and, if \(X\) is an \(r\)-fold loop space, \(r\geq 2\), in the range \(n+1\leq m\leq(r+1) n+r\). The proofs are based on the results about the cohomology suspension \(\sigma^*:H^{n+1} (Y;G)\to H^n(\Omega Y;G)\) of finite products of Eilenberg-MacLane spaces obtained by the second author.