Use in The Study of Group Actions
The total space of a universal bundle is usually written EG. These spaces are of interest in their own right, despite typically being contractible. For example in defining the homotopy quotient or homotopy orbit space of a group action of G, in cases where the orbit space is pathological (in the sense of being a non-Hausdorff space, for example). The idea, if G acts on the space X, is to consider instead the action on
- Y = X×EG,
and corresponding quotient. See equivariant cohomology for more detailed discussion.
If EG is contractible then X and Y are homotopy equivalent spaces. But the diagonal action on Y, i.e. where G acts on both X and EG coordinates, may be well-behaved when the action on X is not.
Read more about this topic: Universal Bundle
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