Automorphisms of \(p\)-compact groups and their root data (Q929214)

About 15 years ago, a movement began in topology to understand the homotopical ``roots'' of compact Lie group theory [see \textit{W. G. Dwyer} and \textit{C. W. Wilkerson}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 6, 37--64 (1993; Zbl 0769.55007)] and [Ann. Math. 139, 395--442 (1994; Zbl 0801.55007)] for instance). New types of spaces, \((X,BX, X\, {\simeq}\,\Omega BX)\), called \(p\)-compact groups, were defined as the analogues of compact Lie groups and their classifying spaces. These spaces possess qualities such as \(BX\) being \(p\)-complete and \(H^*(X;\mathbb F_p)\) being finite. Dwyer and Wilkerson defined an interesting \(2\)-compact group \(DI(4)\) with \(H^*(BDI(4);\mathbb F_2)\) isomorphic to the rank 4 mod 2 Dickson invariants (hence the notation \(DI(4)\)). Recently, the authors of the present paper have shown that \((DI(4),BDI(4))\) is the only simple \(2\)-compact group not arising as the \(2\)-completion of a compact connected Lie group. At any rate, \(p\)-compact groups also have ``Lie group'' analogues of maximal tori (and their normalizers) and, most importantly, Weyl groups and root data, here denoted by \(\mathbf D_X\). In the paper at hand, for a \(p\)-compact group \(X\), the authors show, among other things, how \(\mathbf D_X\) leads to a precise generalization of the Weyl group exact sequence \(T \to N_G(T) \to W\). Furthermore, they construct an algebraic model for the monoid of self-homotopy equivalences of \(BX\): \(\Phi\colon B\text{Aut}(BX) \to B\text{aut}(\mathbf D_X)\) and this proves to be a crucial ingredient in the classification of \(2\)-compact groups (see the authors' preprint, ``The classification of \(2\)-compact groups''). Of course, the classification of \(p\)-compact groups has been accomplished in \textit{K. Andersen, J. Grodal, J. Møller} and \textit{A. Viruel}, [Ann. Math. (2) 167, No. 1, 95--210 (2008; Zbl 1149.55001)]. Finally, it should be pointed out that these homotopical investigations have led to a much deeper understanding of the structure of Lie groups as well as providing a panoply of interesting new spaces to study!