The \(p\)-primary subgroup of the cohomology of \(BPU_n\) in dimension \(2p + 6\) (Q6073653)

Let \(U_{n}\) be the \(n\times n\) unitary group and \(PU_{n}\) be the quotient of \(U_{n}\) by \(S^{1}\subset U_{n}\) as scalar matrices. Let \(BPU_{n}\) be the classifying space for \(PU_{n}\) and let \(p\) be a prime number. The cohomology, \(H^{s}(BPU_{n};\mathbb{Z})\), of \(BPU_{n}\) is a rather complicated object that is unknown in general. There have been computations for specific values of \(s\). This paper computes the \(p\)-primary part of \(H^{2p+6}(BPU_{n};\mathbb{Z})\). The result is \textbf{Theorem} Let \(p>2\) be a prime number and \(n\) a positive integer, then the \(p\)-primary component of \(H^{s}(BPU_{n};\mathbb{Z})\) is trivial. The proof is by analyzing the spectral sequence associated to the fiber \(B(\mathbb{Z}/n)\to BSU_{n}\to BPU_{n}\) and the spectral sequence associated to the fiber \(BS^{1}\to BU_{n}\to BPU_{n}\).