For , there is one integral cohomology generator in every degree , and its products are . The Bott–Samelson theorem supplies free polynomial homology; its primitive generator gives the binomial diagonal dual to this divided power algebra.
We use the James reduced product theorem and the Bott–Samelson theorem: if is a connected based CW complex with free integral homology, then is a weak equivalence, and its induced Pontryagin ring is
Here is the reduced suspension, is the tensor algebra, and the multiplication is induced by concatenating James words, hence by concatenating loops. Taking supplies a single generator of degree , so
is free, with one generator in every degree and zero in the other degrees.
The diagonal makes this a homology coalgebra. The generator is a primitive homology class:
There are no nontrivial lower positive degrees in which its reduced diagonal could land. Compatibility of the diagonal with loop multiplication gives
The degree of is even, so the two tensor factors commute without a Koszul sign rule.
The universal coefficient theorem for cohomology has no Ext terms here because homology is free. Let be the cohomology class dual to , with and . The cup product is dual to the diagonal, hence
Therefore the integral cohomology ring is the divided power algebra
Explicitly for , and all other cohomology groups vanish. In particular : over the integers this is not a polynomial ring on . This is the integral cohomology of an odd-sphere loop space.
For the requested homology multiplication, use the homology cross product followed by concatenation:
The constant loop gives the degree-zero unit. Loop concatenation is associative up to homotopy, which suffices for associativity on homology; Moore loops can make the space-level operation strictly associative. The Künneth theorem identifies the tensor-product homology because its groups are free abelian groups. The Bott–Samelson theorem identifies this product with word multiplication, so . The Pontryagin ring of an odd-sphere loop space has presentation
With only one generator the tensor algebra has the indicated polynomial presentation. The homology product and the divided-power cohomology product are different operations.
Primitive homology class 2026-10-06
A positive-degree class whose reduced homology diagonal vanishes. In a torsion-free homology Hopf algebra, powers of an even primitive class have binomial diagonals. Dualizing that diagonal produces the multiplication of a divided power algebra.