A homotopy idempotent construction by means of simplicial groups (Q5937683)

The authors obtain a simplicial group model for localization of spaces at sets of primes by applying a suitable functor decomposition, as in earlier work of Quillen and Bousfield-Kan. First, they consider uniquely divisible groups and then define an idempotent functor \(L_P\) on groups. For a set of primes \(P\) and any group \(G\), \(G\mapsto L_PG\) is a universal homomorphism from \(G\) into a group which is uniquely divisible by primes not in \(P\). \(L_P\) is the prolongation of this functor to simplicial groups. Let be \(X\) any connected simplicial set and \(J\) a free simplicial group which is a model for the loop space \(\Omega X\), with one nondegenerate generator in dimension \(n\) for each \((n+1)\)-cell of \(X\) and \(J_n\) the group of \(n\)-simplices of \(J\), \(J_n\mapsto L_PJ_n\) its localiation at \(P\). The authors prove that if \(L_PJ\) is the simplicial group obtained by applying \(L_P\) dimensionwise to \(J\) then the classifying space \(\overline WL_PJ\) is a \(P\)-localization of \(X\), \(\overline WL_PJ\simeq X_P\). As an application of this technique they find that if the homotopy fibre of a map \(X\to Y\) is \(n\)-connected for some \(n\geq 1\), then the homotopy fibre of the induced map \(X_P\to Y_P\) is \(n\)-connected, too. This allows to determine homotopy groups of \(P\)-localizations of spaces in a certain range of dimensions for completions or for integral homology localizations. Another application of their results is a neat, explicit construction of fibrewise \(P\)-localization using simplicial groups.