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Where in the literature can I find a naturality statement for Moore-Postnikov towers of maps? Something like the following:

Let $f:X\to A$ and $g:Y\to B$ be maps of connected CW-complexes which both admit a Moore-Postnikov tower of principal fibrations. Then a commuting diagram $\require{AMScd}$ \begin{CD} X @>f>> A\\ @V \Phi V V @VV \phi V\\ Y @>>g> B \end{CD} (possibly with some extra conditions) induces maps $\Phi_n:X_n\to Y_n$ between the $n$-th stages of the towers of $f$ and $g$, for all $n\ge1$.

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    $\begingroup$ This was surely known to Moore, who only seems to have considered the case A=B=*, and it's mentioned in passing in more modern references (like Goerss-Jardine). One reference that explicitly creates a functorial fiberwise localization functor, in great generality, is Dror Farjoun's book (see Example E.1 and section F of Chapter 1 in "cellular spaces, null spaces, and homotopy localization"). etc. etc... $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 21:58
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    $\begingroup$ But are you interested more in having the earliest reference where it "basically" appears, or just a true statement, no matter how modern the reference? $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 22:00

2 Answers 2

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Working simplicially (in those days called "semi-simplicially") this is surely due to Moore, with details in unpublished 1956 lecture notes and in John C. Moore, Semi-simplicial complexes and Postnikov systems. 1958 Symposium internacional de topología algebraica International symposium on algebraic topology pp. 232–247. Earlier related work is in the 1954-55 Cartan Seminar "Algebres d'Eilenbeg-Maclane et homotopie".

Taking $f$ and $g$ in the question to be Kan fibrations of simplicial sets, there is a brief treatment on pages 34-35 of my 1967 book "Simplicial objects in algebraic topology"(http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~may/PAPERS1965.html), where I define "the natural Postnikov system of the fibre space $(E,p,B)$". I don't remember whether or not I got that from my adviser's notes cited above, but I imagine I did.

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I know this question is a bit old and already has an answer with a reference, but I have been thinking about something related lately (see this question) and think I can provide some details. I'm mostly doing this for my own benefit. First, to see if anyone who knows more than I do can verify that it is correct, and second to see if it gins up more interest in my own question above. (I'm very new to MathOverflow, so I apologize in advance if any of this is bad manners)

For ease of exposition, I will assume that both $f$ and $g$ are fibrations with fibers $F$ and $G$, respectively. I think this is not too strong of an assumption since I believe we can just replace $f$ and $g$ with equivalent fibrations.

We proceed inductively, with the base case corresponding to standard covering space theory.

More precisely, the first stage in the Moore-Postnikov towers $X_1$ and $Y_1$ are just the covers of $A$ and $B$ associated to the subgroups of $\pi_1(A)$ and $\pi_1(B)$ coming from the images of $f_\ast:\pi_1(X)\to \pi_1(A)$ and $g_\ast:\pi_1(Y)\to \pi_1(B)$, respectively. Thus a the map $\Phi_1:X_1\to Y_1$ corresponds to a lift of

$$ \require{AMScd} \begin{CD} @. @. Y_1\\ @. @. @VVV\\ X_1 @>{p_1}>> A @>{\phi}>> B \end{CD} $$

By the original commutative diagram we know that $\Psi_\ast\circ (p_1)_\ast(\pi_1(X_2))\subset g_\ast(\pi_1(Y))$, and so by standard covering space theory, a lift exist. Furthermore, once basepoints have been fixed, this lift is unique.

For the inductive step, assume that we have $\Phi_n:X_n\to Y_n$. Given the diagram

$$ \require{AMScd} \begin{CD} X_{n+1} @. Y_{n+1}\\ @V{p_n}VV @V{q_n}VV\\ X_n @>{\Phi_n}>> Y_n \end{CD} $$

we want to understand the obstruction to lifting $\Phi_n\circ p_n$ to $Y_{n+1}$.

By the principality assumption of the Moore-Postnikov tower, we know that $Y_{n+1}\to Y_n$ is obtained as the pullback of a unique (up to homotopy) diagram

$$ \require{AMScd} \begin{CD} Y_{n+1} @>>> PK(\pi_n(G),n+1)\\ @VVV @VVV\\ Y_n @>{o_{n+1}}>>K(\pi_n(G),n+1) \end{CD} ,$$

where $PK(\pi_n(G),n+1)$ is the path space fibration.

The map $o_{n+1}$ corresponds to a cohomology class $[o_{n+1}]\in H^{n+1}(Y_n,\pi_n(G))$ and the obstruction to lifting $p_n\circ \Phi_n$ is given by the class $p_n^\ast \Phi_n^\ast([o_{n+1}])$, which we now show is trivial.

For each $n$, let $\iota_n:Y\to Y_n$ and $j_n: X\to X_n$ be the maps into the various levels of the towers. Notice, that $\iota_n^\ast([o_{n+1}]$ is the obstruction to lifting $\iota_n:Y\to Y_n$ to $Y_{n+1}$, but $\iota_{n+1}$ is such a lift and so $\iota_n^\ast([o_{n+1}]=0$. Consequently, $\phi^\ast\iota_n^\ast([o_{n+1}])=0\in H^{n+1}(X,\pi_n(Y_n))$.

By commutativity of all the diagrams we have

$$ j_{n+1}^\ast p_n^\ast \Phi_n^\ast([o_{n+1}])=j_n^\ast\Phi_n^\ast([o_{n+1}])=\phi^\ast\iota_n^\ast([o_{n+1}])=0 $$

If we can show that $j_{n+1}^\ast:H^{n+1}(X_{n+1},\pi_n(Y_n))\to H^{n+1}(X,\pi_n(Y_n))$ is an isomorphism, this implies that $p_n^\ast\Phi_n^\ast([o_{n+1}])=0$ and that $\Phi_{n+1}:X_{n+1}\to Y_{n+1}$ exists.

Replacing $j_{n+1}$ with a mapping cylinder, the properties of the tower imply that $(X_{n+1},X)$ is $(n+1)$-connected. This implies that $j_{n+1}^\ast$ is a isomorphism (see the proof of 4.21 in Hatcher).

At this point, the only lingering question is about the uniqueness of the lift $\Phi_{n+1}:X_{n+1}\to Y_{n+1}$ of $\Phi_n$. However, I think that the different lifts will be parameterized by elements of $H^n(X_n,X,\pi_n(Y_n))$ (or something similar), which is also trivial. Hence the lift should be unique.

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