Whitehead products in the complex Stiefel manifolds

Abstract

The complex Stiefel manifoldWn,k, wheren≦k≦1, is a space whose points arek-frames inCn. By using the formula of McCarty [4], we will make the calculations of the Whitehead products in the groups π*(Wn,k). The case of real and quaternionic will be treated by Nomura and Furukawa [7]. The product [[η],j1l] appears as generator of the isotropy group of the identity map of Stiefel manifolds. In this note we use freely the results of the 2-components of the homotopy groups of real and complex Stiefel manifolds such as Paechter [8], Hoo-Mahowald [1], Nomura [5], Sigrist [9] and Nomura-Furukawa [6].