Moduli of spaces with prescribed homotopy groups (Q6103323)

A \(\Pi\)-algebra is a graded group equipped with all the primary algebraic structure present in the homotopy groups of a pointed connected topological space. \textit{D. Blanc} et al. [Topology 43, No. 4, 857--892 (2004; Zbl 1054.55007)] studied the moduli space of topological spaces realizing a given \(\Pi\)-algebra and described it as the limit of a tower, thereby exhibiting cohomological obstructions to realizing a \(\Pi\)-algebra. In the paper under review, the author gives a new construction of this obstruction theory using \(\infty\)-categorical techniques. This avoids the \(E_2\)-model structures used in [loc. cit.] and allows to only work with homotopy invariant constructions. The starting point for this approach is the observation (which the author attributes to Mazel-Gee) that the underlying \(\infty\)-category of the \(E_2\)-model structure on simplicial spaces is equivalent to the \(\infty\)-category \(\mathcal P_{\Sigma}(Sph)\) of product-preserving presheaves on finite wedges of positive dimensional spheres. This \(\infty\)-category contains both \(\Pi\)-algebras and pointed connected spaces as full subcategories, and the author constructs a Postnikov tower in \(\mathcal P_{\Sigma}(Sph)\) interpolating between the two. This Postnikov tower is more generally constructed for \(\infty\)-categories satisfying some mild conditions and is interesting in its own right. As the author points out, these results give a more conceptual and significantly simplified approach to the moduli problem for \(\Pi\)-algebras. Moreover, as it is also indicated, the ideas from the present article have in the meanwhile been used in subsequent work on Goerss-Hopkins obstruction theory and may serve as an introduction to this circle of ideas (see e.g. \textit{W. Balderrama} [``Deformations of homotopy theories via algebraic theories'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2108.06801}], \textit{P. Pstrągowski} and \textit{P. VanKoughnett} [Adv. Math. 395, Article ID 108098, 51 p. (2022; Zbl 1484.55022)], and \textit{P. Pstrągowski} [Invent. Math. 232, No. 2, 553--681 (2023; Zbl 07676257)]).