RACK SPACES AND LOOP SPACES

We prove that the rack and quandle spaces of links in 3-manifolds, considered only as topological spaces (disregarding their cubical structure), are closely related to certain subspaces of the loop spaces on the 3-manifold, which we call the vertical and the straight loop space of the link. Using these models we prove that the homotopy type of the non-augmented rack and quandle spaces of a link L in a 3-manifold M depends essentially only on the homotopy type of the pair (M,M -L).