Comparing the homotopy types of the components of \(\text{Map} (S^4, B\text{SU}(2))\) (Q5939618)
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scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1626253
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English | Comparing the homotopy types of the components of \(\text{Map} (S^4, B\text{SU}(2))\) |
scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1626253 |
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Comparing the homotopy types of the components of \(\text{Map} (S^4, B\text{SU}(2))\) (English)
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2 January 2002
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Let \(\text{Map}(S^4,B\text{SU}(2))\) denote the space consisting of all continuous maps \(f:S^4\to B\text{SU}(2)\) with the compact open topology. Since \(\pi_4(B\text{SU}(2))=\mathbb Z\), the path-components of \(\text{Map}(S^4,B\text{SU}(2))\) is classified by the degree on \(\pi_4\). For each \(k\in \mathbb Z\), we denote by \(\text{Map}_k(S^4,B\text{SU}(2))\) the path-component consisting of all continuous maps with degree \(k\) on \(\pi_4\). It is interesting to classify the homotopy types of path-components of \(\text{Map}(S^4,B\text{SU}(2))\) because they are classifying spaces of the gauge groups of \(\text{SU}(2)\)-bundles over \(S^4\). In this paper the author studies this problem and he proves that \(\text{Map}_k(S^4,B\text{SU}(2))\) and \(\text{Map}_l(S^4,B\text{SU}(2))\) are homotopy equivalent if and only if \(k=\pm l\).
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homotopy type
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gauge group
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classifying space
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