In algebraic topology, Hilton's theorem, proved by Peter Hilton (1955), states that the loop space of a wedge of spheres is homotopy-equivalent to a product of loop spaces of spheres.

John Milnor (1972) showed more generally that the loop space of the suspension of a wedge of spaces can be written as an infinite product of loop spaces of suspensions of smash products.

One version of the Hilton-Milnor theorem states that there is a homotopy-equivalence

${\displaystyle \Omega (\Sigma X\vee \Sigma Y)\simeq \Omega \Sigma X\times \Omega \Sigma Y\times \Omega \Sigma \left(\bigvee _{i,j\geq 1}X^{\wedge i}\wedge Y^{\wedge j}\right).}$

Here the capital sigma indicates the suspension of a pointed space.

Consider computing the fourth homotopy group of ${\displaystyle S^{2}\vee S^{2}}$. To put this space in the language of the above formula, we are interested in

${\displaystyle \Omega (S^{2}\vee S^{2})\simeq \Omega (\Sigma S^{1}\vee \Sigma S^{1})}$.

One application of the above formula states

${\displaystyle \Omega (S^{2}\vee S^{2})\simeq \Omega S^{2}\times \Omega S^{2}\times \Omega \Sigma \left(\bigvee _{i,j\geq 1}S^{i+j}\right)}$.

From this one can see that inductively we can continue applying this formula to get a product of spaces (each being a loop space of a sphere), of which only finitely many will have a non-trivial third homotopy group. Those factors are: ${\displaystyle \Omega S^{2},\Omega S^{2},\Omega S^{3},\Omega S^{4},\Omega S^{4}}$, giving the result

${\displaystyle \pi _{4}(S^{2}\vee S^{2})\simeq \oplus _{2}\pi _{4}S^{2}\oplus \pi _{4}S^{3}\oplus \oplus _{2}\pi _{4}S^{4}\simeq \oplus _{3}\mathbb {Z} _{2}\oplus \mathbb {Z} ^{2}}$,

i.e. the direct-sum of a free abelian group of rank two with the abelian 2-torsion group with 8 elements.

• Hilton, Peter J. (1955), "On the homotopy groups of the union of spheres", Journal of the London Mathematical Society, Second Series, 30 (2): 154–172, doi:10.1112/jlms/s1-30.2.154, ISSN 0024-6107, MR 0068218
• Milnor, John Willard (1972) [1956], "On the construction FK", in Adams, John Frank (ed.), Algebraic topology—a student's guide, Cambridge University Press, pp. 118–136, doi:10.1017/CBO9780511662584.011, ISBN 978-0-521-08076-7, MR 0445484

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