Homotopy types of gauge groups over Riemann surfaces (Q6167514)

Let \(P\) be a principal \(G\)-bundle over a compact connected Riemann surface \(X\). Then the isomorphism class of \(P\) is determined by its first Chern class \(c_1(P)\in\mathbb{Z}\). The gauge group of \(P\) is the topological group consisting of \(G\)-equivariant automorphisms of \(P\) which descend to the identity map on \(X\). Denote it by \(\mathcal{G}_k(X,G)\) where \(c_1(P)=k\). In this paper the authors consider the classification problem of gauge groups for a fixed \(X\) and \(G\): for which pair of numbers \((k,l)\) is there a homotopy equivalence \(\mathcal{G}_k(X,G)\simeq\mathcal{G}_l(X,G)\)? If \(\pi_1(G)\cong\mathbb{Z}\) then there exist a compact simply connected Lie group \(H\) and a finite subgroup \(C<S^1\times Z(H)\) such that \[ G\cong(S^1\times H)/C. \] Define \(s(G)=|p_2(C)|\) where \(p_2\colon S^1\times H\to H\) is the projection. \textbf{Theorems 1.2 and 1.3:} Let \(G\) be a compact connected Lie group with \(\pi_1(G)\cong\mathbb{Z}\), and let \(X\) be a compact connected Riemann surface. If \(gcd(k,s(G))=gcd(l,s(G))\) then \(\mathcal{G}_k(X,G)\simeq\mathcal{G}_l(X,G)\) after localizing at any prime or zero. Further, the converse is true provided that \(H\) is \(SU(n)^r\) or \(SU(4n-2)^s\times Sp(2n-1)^t\). Moreover, the authors have proved a homotopy decomposition for \(\mathcal{G}_k(X,G)\), which is useful for computing homotopy groups of moduli spaces of stable vector bundles over \(X\) within a specific range. \textbf{Theorem 1.5:} Let \(G\) be a compact connected Lie group with \(\pi_1(G)\cong\mathbb{Z}\), and let \(X\) be a compact connected Riemann surface of genus \(g\). If \(s(G)\) divides \(k\) then \[ \mathcal{G}_k(X,G)\simeq G\times(\Omega G)^{2g}\times\Omega^2G. \] Moreover the homotopy equivalence holds after localizing at a prime \(p\) which is coprime to \(s(G)\). In Sections 2 and 3 the authors recall preliminaries and show some general facts about gauge groups and Samelson products, and prove \textbf{Theorems 1.2 and 1.5}. In Sections 4 and 5 they compute the Samelson products in \(G\) with \(H\) simple. The results are used to prove \textbf{Theorem 1.3} in Section 6.