On the Betti numbers of a loop space (Q847607)

Let \(R\) be a commutative ring with identity and let \(A'=\{{A'}^{i}\}_{i\geq0}\) with \({A'}^{0}=\mathbb{Z}\) and \({A'}^{1}=0\) be a torsion free graded abelian group endowed with a homotopy Gerstenhaber algebra structure. Let \(A=A'\otimes_{\mathbb{Z}}R\). The main result in this paper is as follows: Assume that \(H^*(A)\) is finitely generated as an \(R\)-module and that \(\text{Tor}^A_*(R,R)\) has finite type. Let \(\tau_i(A)\) denote the cardinality of a minimal generating set of \(\text{Tor}^A_i(R,R)\). Then the set \(\{\tau_i(A)\}\) is unbounded if and only if \(\tilde H(A)\) has at least two algebra generators. When \(A=C^*(X;R)\) is the simplicial cochain complex of a simply connected finite \(CW\)-complex \(X\), the above theorem gives the following theorem: Let \(X\) be a simply connected space. Assume that \(H^*(X;R)\) is finitely generated as an \(R\)-module and \(H^*(\Omega X;R)\) has finite type. Let \(\beta_i(\Omega X;R)\) be the cardinality of a minimal generating set of \(H^i(\Omega X;R)\), which is called the generalized \(i\)\,th Betti number of \(\Omega X\). Then the set \(\{\beta_i(\Omega X;R)\}\) is unbounded if and only if \(\tilde H_*(X;R)\) has at least two algebra generators. This theorem was proved by \textit{D. Sullivan} [Manifolds, Proc. int. Conf. Manifolds relat. Top. Topol., Tokyo 1973, 37--49 (1975; Zbl 0319.58005)] over fields of characteristic zero and \textit{J. McCleary} [Invent. Math. 87, 643--654 (1987; Zbl 0611.57024)] over fields of positive characteristic.