Higher homotopy commutativity of H-spaces and the mod p torus theorem (Q582621)

In 1969 F. Williams defined the notion of \(C_ n\)-form on associative H- spaces. That gave an idea of higher homotopy commutativity of the multiplication. In this paper we expand his definition to that of quasi \(C_ n\)-form, which is defined on \(A_ n\)-spaces. Then we prove the following theorem: Let X be a simply connected CW-complex with the finite mod p cohomology for a prime p. If X is an \(A_ p\)-space admitting a quasi \(C_ p\)-form, then \(\tilde H^*(X;Z/p)=0\). This theorem is a mod p version of the Torus Theorem by \textit{J. Hubbuck} [Topology 8, 119-126 (1969; Zbl 0176.213)], and generalizes results by \textit{J. Aguadé} and \textit{L. Smith} [Math. Z. 191, 325-326 (1986; Zbl 0591.55003)] and \textit{C. McGibbon} [Math. Z. 201, 363-374 (1989)]. We also study a localized sphere \(S_{(p)}^{2t-1}\), and determine the best possible n so that \(S_{(p)}^{2t-1}\) has a quasi \(C_ n\)-form.