15

Since it's fairly easy to come up with a two spaces that have different homotopy groups but the same homology groups ($S^2\times S^4$ and $\mathbb{C}\textrm{P}^3$). Are there any nice examples of spaces going the other way around? Are there any obvious ways to approach a problem like this?

Grigory M
  • 17,478
asdf
  • 735

2 Answers2

14

Standard example is $\mathbb RP^2\times S^3$ and $\mathbb RP^3\times S^2$ (they have same homotopy groups since they both have $\pi_1=\mathbb Z/2$ and the universal cover is in both cases $S^2\times S^3$).

Grigory M
  • 17,478
3

Consider $X=S^1\vee S^3$ and its double cover $X_2$ i.e, attach two copy of $S^3$ one in north pole and one in south pole of $S^1$. Then $\pi_1(X) =\mathbb{Z} = \pi_1(X_2)$. And covering map induced isomorphism in $\pi_n$ for all $n\geq 2$. But they are not homotopically equivalent/ they have different homology groups since their Eular Characteristics are different.

Anubhav Mukherjee
  • 6,438
  • 1
  • 16
  • 31