Classifying spaces for 1-truncated compact Lie groups (Q679795)

A compact Lie group \(H\) is said to be 1-truncated if its homotopy groups vanish in dimensions greater than one. Equivalently, a 1-truncated compact Lie group has a torus as its identity component, and hence is an extension of a finite group by a torus. The aim of the paper under review is to compute the homotopy types of \(\mathrm{Map}_*(BG; BH)\) and \(\mathrm{Map}(BG; BH)\) for compact Lie groups \(G\) and \(H\) with \(H\) 1-truncated, by showing that they can be computed entirely in terms of spaces of homomorphisms from \(G\) to \(H\). These results generalize the previously known cases when \(H\) is finite or compact abelian due to Lashof, May, and Segal [\textit{R. K. Lashof} et al., Contemp. Math. 19, 167--176 (1983; Zbl 0526.55020)] and [\textit{J. P. May}, Astérisque 191, 239--253 (1990; Zbl 0728.55011)]. Let \(\mathrm{Hom}(G; H)\) denote the space of continuous homomorphisms equipped with the compact-open topology. The main results of the paper are as follows: Theorem 1.1: Let \(G\) and \(H\) be compact Lie groups with \(H\) 1-truncated. Then the natural map \(B:\mathrm{Hom}(G; H) \to \mathrm{Map}_*(BG; BH)\) is a weak equivalence. Theorem 1.2: Let \(G\) and \(H\) be compact Lie groups with \(H\) 1-truncated. Then there is a weak equivalence \(\mathrm{Hom}(G; H) \times_H EH \to \mathrm{Map}(BG; BH)\), where \(H\) acts on \(\mathrm{Hom}(G; H)\) by conjugation \(h \phi:=h \phi h^{-1}\). The main idea of the paper is the use of the nerve \(N(H, V)\) of the exponential crossed module of the 1-truncated compact Lie group \(H\). It is first shown that the simplicial space \(N(H, V)\) is a Reedy fibrant model for the usual simplicial nerve \(NH\) of \(H\), and thus can be used to compute maps from \(BG\) to \(BH\) in terms of maps of simplicial spaces from \(NG\) to \(N(H, V)\). The unbased Theorem 1.2 is derived from the based Theorem 1.1 by comparing associated fibrations over \(BH\).