Grant's LS-category conjecture for group homomorphisms

Let ϕ:ΓΛ\phi:\Gamma\to\Lambda be a group homomorphism. The LS-category of the homomorphism, cat(ϕ)\operatorname{cat}(\phi), is the minimum number kk such that a classifying-space map inducing ϕ\phi can be covered by k+1k+1 open sets on which its restrictions are nullhomotopic. The cohomological dimension cd(ϕ)\operatorname{cd}(\phi) is the maximum kk for which there exists a ZΛ\mathbb{Z}\Lambda-module MM such that the induced map

ϕ:Hk(Λ,M)Hk(Γ,M)\phi^*:H^k(\Lambda,M)\to H^k(\Gamma,M)

is nonzero.

Grant's LS-category conjecture. For any group homomorphism ϕ:ΓΛ\phi:\Gamma\to\Lambda,

cat(ϕ)=cd(ϕ).\operatorname{cat}(\phi)=\operatorname{cd}(\phi).

This conjecture extends the Eilenberg–Ganea equality from groups to homomorphisms. The inequality cd(ϕ)cat(ϕ)\operatorname{cd}(\phi)\leq\operatorname{cat}(\phi) is known in general, but the proposed equality is false: Tom Goodwillie gave a counterexample consisting of an epimorphism from an infinitely generated group to Z2\mathbb{Z}^2 with cd(ϕ)=1\operatorname{cd}(\phi)=1.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Nursultan Kuanyshov, “On the LS-category of homomorphism of almost nilpotent groups”, arXiv:2308.14886 (2023).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.