Unitary embeddings of finite loop spaces (Q516941)

For a prime \(p\), let \(\mathbb{Z}/p^\infty\) denote the union of all \(\mathbb{Z}/p^r\) under the obvious inclusions. A \textit{discrete \(p\)-toral group} is a group \(P\) with a normal subgroup \(P_0\) such that it is isomorphic to a direct product of \(\mathbb{Z}/p^\infty\) and \(P/P_0\) is a finite \(p\)-group. A \textit{fusion system} \(\mathcal{F}\) over a discrete \(p\)-toral group \(S\) is a category whose objects are the subgroups of \(S\) and whose morphisms are group monomorphisms such that (i) \(\text{Hom}_S(P, Q) \subseteq \text{Hom}_{\mathcal F}(P, Q)\) for all \(P, Q \leq S\) where \(\text{Hom}_S(P, Q)\) denotes the set of homomorphisms induced by conjugations in \(S\); (ii) every morphism is the composite of an \({\mathcal F}\)-isomorphism and an inclusion. Here these fusion systems all are supposed to satisfy the saturation condition (definition omitted). In this paper the authors show that for such an \({\mathcal F}\) there exists a faithful unitary representation \(\rho : S\to \mathrm{U}(n)\) such that it satisfies the property that \(\rho|_P\) and \(\rho|_{f(P)}\circ f\) are isomorphic for any \(P\leq S\) and any \(f \in \text{Hom}_{\mathcal F}(P, S)\). This has an application with respect to a unitary embedding of a \textit{\(p\)-local compact group} \((S, {\mathcal F}, {\mathcal L})\) where \({\mathcal L}\) denotes the system associated to \({\mathcal F}\) called \(\lq\lq\)centric linking''. Let \(X\) be a topological space. Then by the unitary embedding of \(X\) we mean a homotopy monomorphism \(X \to BU(N)_p^\wedge\). By studying a composite map \[ \Psi_m : [|{\mathcal L}|_p^\wedge, BU(m)_p^\wedge] \to [BS, BU(m)_p^\wedge] \to \text{Rep}^{\mathcal F}(S, U(m)) \] where \(|{\mathcal L}|_p^\wedge\) denotes the classifying space of \((S, {\mathcal F}, {\mathcal L})\), the authors obtain that under a certain hypothesis there is a positive integer \(s\) such that \(s\rho \in \text{Im}(\Psi_{sn})\), which yields the result that if the length of the category \({\mathcal O}({\mathcal F}^{cr})\) is smaller than 3, then there exists a unitary embedding of \(|{\mathcal L}|_p^\wedge\). Besides the authors show that this result can also be used successfully to solve the same problem for both \(p\)-compact groups and finite loop spaces. For example, in the latter case, a \textit{finite loop space} is a triple \((X, BX, e)\) where \(X\) is a finite CW-complex, \(BX\) is a pointed space and \(e : X \to \Omega BX\) is an equivalence. The authors prove that \(BX_p^\wedge\) has a unitary embedding, using a result on a finite regular covering with \(|{\mathcal L}|_p^\wedge\) as its covering space in addition to the above one.