Combinatorics of double loop suspensions, evaluation maps and Cohen groups

Abstract

We reformulate Milgram's model of a double loop suspension in terms of a preoperad of posets, each stage of which is the poset of all ordered partitions of a finite set. Using this model, we give a combinatorial model for the evaluation map and use it to study the Cohen representation for the group of homotopy classes of maps between double loop suspensions. Demonstrating the general theory, we recover Wu's shuffle relations and further provide a type of secondary relations in Cohen groups by using Toda brackets. In particular, we prove certain maps are null-homotopic by combining our relations and the classical James–Hopf invariants.