On relative homotopy groups of the product filtration, the James construction, and a formula of Hopf (Q687570)

The fundamental crossed complex \(\pi(X_ *)\) of a filtered space \(X_ *= \{X_ 0\subseteq X_ 1\subseteq\dots\}\) consists of the relative homotopy groups \(\pi_ n X_ *= \pi_ n(X_ n,X_{n-1})\) together with the fundamental groupoid \(\pi_ 1(X_ 1,X_ 0)\) and the appropriate actions and boundary maps. The prime example is the skeletal filtration of a CW complex \(X\), denoted \(X^*\). For this type of filtered space, it is known that the crossed complex construction commutes with the product filtration. That is, \(\pi(X^*)\otimes \pi(Y^*)\cong \pi(X^*\otimes Y^*)\). The main result of this paper is an extension of this commutation property to more general filtered spaces satisfying the hypotheses that each inclusion \(X_ n\to X_{n+1}\) be a closed cofibration, \(\pi_ 0(X_ 0)\to \pi_ 0(X_ n)\) be surjective for all \(n\) and \((X_ n,X_{n-1})\) be \((n-1)\)- connected for all \(n\geq 1\). The product formula is applied to show that, for the types of filtered spaces under consideration, the James construction also commutes with the crossed complex construction. Moreover, this then leads to the fact that the James construction of a crossed complex \(C\) [the second author with \textit{P. J. Higgins}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 47, 1-33 (1987; Zbl 0621.55009)] is isomorphic to the crossed complex of the James construction of the filtered classifying space \(BC\) [the second author with \textit{P. J. Higgins}, Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 110, No. 1, 95-120 (1992; Zbl 0732.55007)].