The structure of homotopy Lie algebras (Q843200)

Let \(k\) be a ground field of characteristic not equal to 2. Let \(X\) be a simply connected CW complex of finite type. Then the ``rational homotopy Lie algebra'' \(L_X = \pi_\ast(\Omega X) \otimes \mathbb{Q}\), with Lie bracket given by the Samelson product, is a cft (that is, connected and of finite type) graded Lie algebra. Then the paper [\textit{Y. Félix} et al., ``The radical of the homotopy Lie algebra'', Am. J. Math. 110, No. 2, 301--322 (1988; Zbl 0654.55011)] showed that \(\mathrm{depth} \, L_X \leq \mathrm{cat}_0 \, X,\) where \(\mathrm{cat}_0 \, X\) is the rational Lusternik-Schnirelmann category of \(X\). This result implies that if \(X\) is a finite CW complex, then the depth of \(L_X\) is finite. This result shows that the class of cft graded Lie algebras of finite depth is of serious interest. Since \(\mathrm{dim} \, (L_X)_i = \mathrm{rank} \, \pi_{i+1}(X)\), it is important to understand the behavior and growth of the integers \(\mathrm{dim} \, (L_X)_i\). Towards this end, the paper [\textit{Y. Félix, S. Halperin} and \textit{J.-C. Thomas}, ``Exponential growth and an asymptotic formula for the ranks of homotopy groups of a finite 1-connected complex'', Ann. Math. (2) 170, No. 1, 443--464 (2009; Zbl 1197.55006)] showed that the expression \(\sum_{i=k}^{k+d} (\mathrm{dim} \, (L_X)_i),\) for certain \(X, k\) and \(d\), is especially useful. Thus, in the paper under review, a subspace \(W\) of a graded vector space \(V = \{V_i\}_{i \geq 0}\) is said to be full in \(V\) if for some fixed \(\lambda, q\) and \(N\) (each of these quantities must be positive), \(\mathrm{dim} \, V_k \leq \lambda \sum_{i = k}^{k+q} (\mathrm{dim} \, W_i),\) where \(k \geq N.\) There is an equivalence relation on the subspaces of the graded vector space \(V\) given by \(U \sim W\) if and only if \(U\) and \(W\) are full in \(U + W\). Then two subspaces \(V\) and \(W\) in a graded Lie algebra \(L\) are called \(L\)-equivalent if for all ideals \(I \subset L\), \(V \cap I \sim W \cap I\). The authors show that \(\mathcal{L}\), the set of \(L\)-equivalence classes \([I]\) of ideals \(I\) in \(L\) is a distributive lattice in a natural way; in particular, \([I] \leq [J]\) if \(I \cap J\) is \(L\)-equivalent to \(I\). Given an element \([I]\) in \(\mathcal{L}\), the height of \([I]\), \(\mathrm{ht}[I]\), is the unique number that is the length of a maximal chain of strict inequalities between \(0\) and \([I]\). The main result of this paper is as follows. Suppose that \(L\) is a cft graded Lie algebra of finite depth \(m\) and let \(r = \mathrm{ht}[L]\). Then \(r \leq m\) and \(\nu_L \leq 2^r,\) where \(\nu_L\) is the number of \(L\)-equivalence classes of ideals in \(L\). Also, \(\nu_L = 2^r\) if and only if \(L\) is \(L\)-equivalent to \(I(1) \oplus \cdots \oplus I(r)\), where each \(I(j)\) is an infinite dimensional ideal of height one. This paper also contains a variety of other results related to the above concepts and to other notions having to do with the growth of dimension. For example, the authors show that if \(L\) is a cft graded Lie algebra of finite depth, then either there is a finite dimensional ideal in \(L\) that contains \(L_{\mathrm{odd}}\) or there is some \(d\) such that the integers \(\sum_{j = k+1}^{k+d} (\mathrm{dim} \, {(L_{\mathrm{odd}})}_j)\) grow faster than any polynomial in \(k\).