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A Pattern In The Lusternik-Schnirelmann Category Of Rational Spaces, Julie Dare Houck

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The Lusternik-Schnirelmann (or LS) category of a space is one less than the number of contractible open sets with which we can cover the space. If we look at the LS categories of the skeleta of a CW complex, we find a sequence of dimensions where the LS category changes. I discuss whether certain of these "category sequences" (defined in the paper, "Categorical Sequences", by Nendorf, Scoville, and Strom) could be realized as the categorical sequences of rational spaces. I first reduce from looking at all rational spaces to only Postnikov sections of finite wedges of spheres. Using the Leray-Serre …