On Lie groups and their homotopy groups

Abstract

We prove a theorem which facilitates homotopy classification of maps into a topological group G. Some information about homotopy groups of G is obtained, including the following two results. Consider the Samelson product, as defined in (7), which constitutes a bilinear pairing of πp(G) with πq(G) to πp+q(G). The product of a α ∈ πp(G) with β ∈ πq(G) is written in the form 〈α, β〉. There exist groups having Samelson products of infinite order. Homotopy-commutative groups have zero Samelson products. We shall proveTheorem (1·1). If G is a connected Lie group then there exists a positive integer n such that n〈α, β〉 = 0 for every pair α, β of elements in the homotopy groups of G.