A quick proof of the rational Hurewicz theorem and a computation of the rational homotopy groups of spheres

Abstract

We give an elementary proof of the rational Hurewicz theorem and compute the rational cohomology groups of Eilenberg–MacLane spaces and the rational homotopy groups of spheres. Instead of using the Serre spectral sequence, we only assume the classical Hurewicz theorem, and give a short proof of the rational Gysin and Wang long exact sequences, which are applied inductively to the path fibration of Eilenberg–MacLane spaces.