Homotopy excision and cellularity (Q506607)

The classical \textit{A. L. Blakers} and \textit{W. S. Massey} theorem [Ann. Math. (2) 58, 409--417 (1953; Zbl 0053.12901)] can be stated as follows [\textit{A. Hatcher}, Algebraic topology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2002; Zbl 1044.55001), Thm. 4.23]: Let \(X\) be a CW complex decomposed as a union of subcomplexes \(A\) and \(B\) with nonempty connected intersection \(C=A\cap B\). If \((A,C)\) is \(m\)-connected and \((B,C)\) is \(n\)-connected, \(m,n\geq 0\), then the map \(\pi_i(A,C)\to \pi_i(X,B)\) induced by inclusion is an isomorphism for \(i< m+n\) and a surjection for \(i = m + n\). The authors of this interesting paper prove the following generalization by considering the following situation. Let \(C\leftarrow A \rightarrow B\) be a diagram of spaces, form the homotopy pushout \(Q\), and then the homotopy pullback \(P\) of the diagram obtained after removing the initial object \(A\), i.e. of the diagram \(C\rightarrow Q \leftarrow B\). The difference between \(A\) and the homotopy pullback \(P\) is measured in terms of the homotopy fibers of the original maps. To state the main result, we need the following notation. Given a map \(f:A\to B\) let \(\mathcal{F}ib(f)\) stand for \textit{the set} of homotopy fibers \(\{\text{Fib}_b(f) \mid b\in \pi_0(B) \}\). Next, let the cellular inequality \(X>A\) mean that \(X\in \overline{\mathcal{C}}(A)\), where \(\overline{\mathcal{C}}(A)\) denotes the class of spaces that become contractible after localizing the category of spaces at \(\{A\to \Delta[0]\}\), see [\textit{E. Dror Farjoun}, Cellular spaces, null spaces and homotopy localization. Berlin: Springer-Verlag (1995; Zbl 0842.55001)]. Theorem 9.1. Consider a commutative square: \[ \begin{tikzcd} A \ar[r, "f"] \ar[d, "g"'] & B \ar[d]\\ C \ar[r] & D \end{tikzcd} \] with total fiber \(\mathcal{T}\) and push-out fiber \(\mathcal{R}\). Then we have \[ \mathcal{T} > \Omega\mathcal{F}ib(f) * \Omega\mathcal{F}ib(g) \cup \Omega\mathcal{R}, \] where \(\mathcal{T}\) stands for the homotopy fiber set of the canonical map \(A\to P\) and \(\mathcal{R}\) stands for the homotopy fiber set of the canonical map of the pushout \(Q\) of \(C\leftarrow A \rightarrow B\) into \(D\). An important special case is given by Corollary 2.2. Consider a homotopy push-out square of pointed and simply connected spaces: \[ \begin{tikzcd} A \ar[r, "f"] \ar[d, "g"'] & B \ar[d]\\ C \ar[r] & D \end{tikzcd} \] with total fiber \(T\). Then \[ T > \Omega \text{Fib}(f) * \Omega \text{Fib}(g) \] This paper is an extension of the results of the first author to the present context [Topology 36, No. 6, 1381--1400 (1997; Zbl 0880.55011)]. The paper is organized as follows. The first section, which occupies around 6 pages, gives a fairly detailed summary of the necessary background and notation used throughout the paper. The second section states the main result and gives a number of interesting examples illustrating its use. The remaining sections present a detailed proof of the main result.