The first relative k-invariant

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Conway, Anthony, Kasprowski, Daniel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Conway, Anthony
Kasprowski, Daniel
author_facet Conway, Anthony
Kasprowski, Daniel
contents Motivated by work on the homotopy classification of $4$-manifolds with boundary, we define a relative $k$-invariant for pairs of spaces that are homotopy equivalent to CW pairs. We show that for such a pair $(X,Y)$ with Postnikov $2$-type $X \to P_2(X)$, the relative $k$-invariant is the obstruction to the existence of a section $Bπ_1(X)\to P_2(X)$ extending $Y \hookrightarrow X \to P_2(X)$. Given CW pairs $(X_0,Y_0)$ and $(X_1,Y_1)$, as well as a map $h \colon Y_0 \to Y_1$, we also prove that relative $k$-invariants provide a complete obstruction to constructing a map $X_0^{(3)} \cup Y_0 \to X_1$ that extends $h$ and induces given isomorphisms on $π_1$ and $π_2$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_18796
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The first relative k-invariant
Conway, Anthony
Kasprowski, Daniel
Geometric Topology
Motivated by work on the homotopy classification of $4$-manifolds with boundary, we define a relative $k$-invariant for pairs of spaces that are homotopy equivalent to CW pairs. We show that for such a pair $(X,Y)$ with Postnikov $2$-type $X \to P_2(X)$, the relative $k$-invariant is the obstruction to the existence of a section $Bπ_1(X)\to P_2(X)$ extending $Y \hookrightarrow X \to P_2(X)$. Given CW pairs $(X_0,Y_0)$ and $(X_1,Y_1)$, as well as a map $h \colon Y_0 \to Y_1$, we also prove that relative $k$-invariants provide a complete obstruction to constructing a map $X_0^{(3)} \cup Y_0 \to X_1$ that extends $h$ and induces given isomorphisms on $π_1$ and $π_2$.
title The first relative k-invariant
topic Geometric Topology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18796