Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
The question of which finite CW-complexes are if-spaces has been studied for many years. Since a finite CW-complex is an H-space if and only if its localization at each prime p is an H-space [21], an examination of finite local cell complexes as H-spaces yields results concerning CW-complexes. On the other hand, if it is known that a particular CW-complex is not an H-space, one would like to know for which primes p its localization at p fails to be an H-space. The main result of this paper gives a condition equivalent to a three cell local CW-complex's being an H-space for a prime p > 3.