The rational sectional category of certain universal fibrations

Lyusternik-Shnirel'man category of a space, topological complexity à la Farber, topological robotics (topological aspects) (55M30) (H)-spaces and duals (55P45) Rational homotopy theory (55P62) Fibrewise topology (55R70)

Abstract: We prove that the sectional category of the universal fibration with fibre X, for X any space that satisfies a well-known conjecture of Halperin, equals one after rationalization.

Review text

In this paper, the authors deal, in the context of rational homotopy theory, with the problem of finiteness of the sectional category (secat) which extends to fibrations the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category (cat). The renewed interest in this numerical invariant is due to the topological complexity (TC) recently introduced by \textit{M. Farber} [Discrete Comput. Geom. 29, No. 2, 211--221 (2003; Zbl 1038.68130)]. To introduce the problem in consideration, the authors first demonstrate that, when \(X\) is a simply connected finite CW-complex, the universal fibration \(X\rightarrow \mathrm{Baut}_1^*(X) \stackrel{u_X}{\rightarrow} \mathrm{Baut}_1(X)\) (which classifies fibrations with fiber \(X\)) is a fiber sequence of spaces homotopy equivalent to simply connected CW complexes of finite rational type. It results that \(\mathrm{secat}_0(u_X):= \mathrm{secat}({(u_X)}_{\mathbb{Q}})\leq \mathrm{cat}_0(\mathrm{Baut}_1(X))\), where \({(u_X)}_{\mathbb{Q}}\) stands for the rationalization of \(u_X\) and \(\mathrm{cat}_0(\mathrm{Baut}_1(X))\) for the rational category of the Dold-Lashof classifying space \(\mathrm{Baut}_1(X)\). \(\mathrm{cat}_0(\mathrm{Baut}_1(X))\) being often infinite, they propose to seek the conditions of finiteness of \(\mathrm{secat}_0({u_X})\). Their main result (Theorem 1.1) gives an affirmative response when \(X\) is an \(F_0\)-space (i.e. a rationally elliptic space with cohomology concentrated in even degrees) satisfying the Halperin conjecture: If \(p : E\rightarrow B\) is any fibration of simply connected spaces with fibre an \(F_0\)-space, then the rational Serre spectral sequence collapses at the \(E_2\)-term. They in fact prove that for such a space \(\mathrm{secat}_0({u_X})=1\) which extends the same formula resulting from \textit{D. Stanley}'s work in [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 128, No. 10, 3137--3143 (2000; Zbl 0951.55015)] for \(\mathbb{S}^{2n}\). To prove their main result, the authors use, on the one hand, a special case of Schwarz's characterization of secat in terms of the fibrewise join construction (Proposition 3.1) and, on the other hand, Meier's result which made a connection between Halperin's Conjecture and the rational homotopy of the universal fibration [\textit{W. Meier}, Math. Ann. 258, No. 3, 329--340 (1982; Zbl 0466.55012)]. The technical results (Proposition 3.2 and Proposition 3.4) are established after translating the topological data to (relative) Sullivan minimal models. As a consequence, the simultaneous use of Theorem 1.1, the inequality \(\mathrm{secat}_0(f ^ * (u_X)) \leq\mathrm{secat}_0(u_X)\) [\textit{O. Cornea} et al., Lusternik-Schnirelmann category. Providence: American Mathematical Society (2003; Zbl 1032.55001)] and the naturality of rationalization with respect to pull-backs reduces the computation of \(\mathrm{secat}_0\) for any fibration with fibre an \(F_0\)-space satisfying Halperin's Conjecture, to the question of the existence of a section. This then led the authors to pose the following question: Let \(X\) be an \(F_0\)-space. Does \(\mathrm{secat}_0(u_X) = 1\) imply that \(X\) satisfies Halperin's Conjecture?

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