Loop-theoretic properties of H-spaces

Abstract

If X is a topological space with base point, then a based map m: X × X → X is called a multiplication if m restricted to each factor of X × X is homotopic to the identity map of X. The pair (X, m) is then called an H-space. If A is a based topological space and (X, m) is an H-space, then the multiplication m induces a binary operation on the set [A, X] of based homotopy classes of maps of A into X. A classical result due to James [6, theorem 1·1 asserts that if A is a CW-complex and (X, m) is an H-space, then the binary operation gives [A, X] the structure of an algebraic loop. That is, [A, X] has a two-sided identity element and if a, b ∈[A, X], then the equations ax = b and ya = b have unique solutions x, y ∈ [A, X]. Thus it is meaningful to consider loop-theoretic properties of H-spaces. In this paper we make a detailed study of the following loop-theoretic notions applied to H-spaces: inversivity, power-associativity, quasi-commutativity and the Moufang property – see Section 2 for the definitions. If an H-space is Moufang, then it has the other three properties. Moreover, an associative loop is Moufang, and so a homotopy-associative H-space has all four properties. Since many of the standard H-spaces are homotopy-associative, we are particularly interested in determining when an H-space, in particular a finite CW H-space, does not have one of these properties.