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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
The β-construction assigns to each complex representation φ of the compact Lie group G a unique element β(φ) in (G). For the details of this construction the reader is referred to [1] or [5]. The purpose of the present paper is to determine some of the properties of the element β(φ) in terms of the invariants of the representation φ. More precisely, we consider the following question. Let G be a simple, simply-connected compact Lie group and let f : S3 →G be a Lie group homomorphism. Then (S3) ⋍ Z with generator x = β(φ1), φ1 the fundamental representation of S3 , so that if φ is a representation of G,f*(φ) = n(φ)x, where n(φ) is an integer depending on φ and f . The problem is to determine n(φ).
Since G is simple and simply-connected we may assume that ch2, the component of the Chern character in dimension 4 takes its values in H4(SG,Z)≅Z. Let u be a generator of H4(SG,Z) so that ch2(β (φ)) = m(φ)u, m(φ) an integer depending on φ.