Ranks of homotopy groups of homogeneous spaces (Q845224)

In this paper, \(G\) is a compact connected Lie group, \(H\) a connected regular subgroup or a subgroup of maximal rank of \(G\), and \(M=G/H\). The \textit{rank} (or the \textit{Onishchik rank}) of \(M\) is defined as \[ \mathrm{rk} M= \sum_{i=0}^{\infty} \mathrm{rk} \pi_{2i+1}(M). \] The author presents a simple way to evaluate the rank and the homotopy groups of \(M\), in the case where \(M\) has positive Euler characteristic. He also obtains a classification of spaces whose Onishchik ranks are equal to 3. The transitive actions on the products of homogeneous spaces of the form \(G/H\) are also described, in the case where \(G\) and \(H\) are simple and \(H\) is a subgroup of corank 1 in \(G\) and the defect of the space \(G/H\) is equal to one.