Based on a Whitehead-type characterization of the sectional category we develop the notion of weak sectional category. This is a new lower bound of the sectional category, which is inspired by the notion of weak category in the sense of Berstein-Hilton. We establish several properties and inequalities, including the fact that the weak sectional category is a better lower bound for the sectional category than the classical one given by the nilpotency of the kernel of the induced map in cohomology. Finally, we apply our results in the study of the topological complexity in the sense of Farber.
Extending a result of Félix-Halperin-Lemaire on Lusternik-Schnirelmann category of products, we prove additivity of a rational approximation for Schwarz's sectional category with respect to products of fibrations.
We prove that the sectional category of the universal fibration with fibre X, for X any space that satisfies a well-known conjecture of Halperin, equals one after rationalization.
We give simple upper bounds for rational sectional category and use them to compute invariants of the type of Farber's topological complexity of rational spaces. In particular we show that the sectional category of formal morphisms reaches its cohomological lower bound and give a method to compute higher topological complexity of formal spaces in terms of their cohomology.
Félix, Halperin, and Lemaire have shown that the rational module category Mcat and the rational Toomer invariant $e_0$ coincide for simply connected Poincaré duality complexes. We establish an analogue of this result for the sectional category of a fibration.
We give bounds for the module sectional category of products of maps which generalise a theorem of Jessup for Lusternik-Schnirelmann category. We deduce also a proof of a Ganea type conjecture for topological complexity. This is a first step towards proving the Ganea conjecture for topological complexity in the rational context.
We give a simple algebraic characterisation of the sectional category of rational maps admitting a homotopy retraction. As a particular case we get the Félix-Halperin theorem for rational Lusternik-Schnirelmann category and prove the conjecture of Jessup-Murillo-Parent on rational topological complexity. We also give a characterisation for relative category in the sense of Doeraene-El Haouari.
We study the behavior of the abstract sectional category in the Quillen, the Strom and the Mixed proper model structures on topological spaces and prove that, under certain reasonable conditions, all of them coincide with the classical notion. As a result, the same conclusions hold for the abstract Lusternik-Schnirelmann category and the abstract topological complexity of a space.
This survey is a guide for the non specialist on how to use rational homotopy theory techniques to get approximations of Farber's topological complexity, in particular, and of Schwarz's sectional category, in general.
We give a characterization of relative category in the sense of Doeraene-El Haouari by using open covers. We also prove that relative category and sectional category can be defined by taking arbitrary covers (not necessarily open) when dealing with ANR spaces.
We develop a theory of generalized Hopf invariants in the setting of sectional category. In particular we show how Hopf invariants for a product of fibrations can be identified as shuffle joins of Hopf invariants for the factors. Our results are applied in the study of Farber's topological complexity for 2-cell complexes, as well as in the construction of a counter-example to the analogue for topological complexity of Ganea's conjecture on Lusternik-Schnirelmann category.
For a Hausdorff space $X$, we exhibit an unexpected connection between the sectional number of the Fadell-Neuwirth fibration $π_{2,1}^X:F(X,2)\to X$, and the fixed point property (FPP) for self-maps on $X$. Explicitly, we demonstrate that a space $X$ has the FPP if and only if 2 is the minimal cardinality of open covers $\{U_i\}$ of $X$ such that each $U_i$ admits a continuous local section for $π_{2,1}^X$. This characterization connects a standard problem in fixed point theory to current research trends in topological robotics.
By analogy with the invariant Q-category defined by Scheerer, Stanley and Tanré, we introduce the notions of Q-sectional category and Q-topological complexity. We establish several properties of these invariants. We also obtain a formula for the behaviour of the sectional category with respect to a fibration which generalizes the classical formulas for Lusternik-Schnirelmann category and topological complexity.
On the $m$-dimensional sectional category and induced invariants
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune（印度科学教育研究所浦那分校）；Indian Institute of Technology Madras（印度理工学院马德拉斯分校）；Indian Statistical Institute（印度统计研究所）
In [BaSc2] the authors introduced a much weaker homotopical structure than a model category, called a "weak cofibration category". We further showed that a small weak cofibration category induces in a natural way a model category structure on its ind-category, provided the ind-category satisfies a certain two out of three property. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a companion to the papers above, proving results which say that if a certain property or structure exists in the weak cofibration category, then the same property or structure also holds in the induced model structure on the …
We define a homotopy relation between arrows of a category with weak equivalences, and give a condition under which the quotient by the homotopy relation yields the homotopy category. In the case of the fibrant-cofibrant objects of a model category this condition holds, and we show that our notion of homotopy coincides with the classical one. We also show that Quillen's construction of the homotopy category of a model category, in which the arrows are homotopical classes of a single arrow between fibrant-cofibrant objects, can be made as well for categories with weak equivalences using this no…
This paper continues the development of a simplicial theory of weak omega-categories, by studying categories which are enriched in weak complicial sets. These complicial Gray-categories generalise both the Kan complex enriched categories of homotopy theory and the Gray-categories of weak 3-category theory. We derive a simplicial nerve construction, which is closely related to Cordier and Porter's homotopy coherent nerve, and show that this faithfully represents complicial Gray-categories as weak complicial sets. The category of weak complicial sets may itself be canonically enriched to a compl…
In a recent paper we introduced a much weaker and easy to verify structure than a model category, which we called a "weak fibration category". We further showed that a small weak fibration category can be "completed" into a full model category structure on its pro-category, provided the pro-category satisfies a certain two out of three property. In the present paper we give sufficient intrinsic conditions on a weak fibration category for this two out of three property to hold. We apply these results to prove theorems giving sufficient conditions for the finite accessibility of the category of …
We introduce a notion of "weak model category" which is a weakening of the notion of Quillen model category, still sufficient to define a homotopy category, Quillen adjunctions, Quillen equivalences and most of the usual construction of categorical homotopy theory. Both left and right semi-model categories are weak model categories, and the opposite of a weak model category is again a weak model category. The main advantages of weak model categories is that they are easier to construct than Quillen model categories. In particular we give some simple criteria on two weak factorization systems f…
In his book on model categories, Hovey asked whether the 2-category $\mathbf{Mod}$ of model categories admits a "model 2-category structure" whose weak equivalences are the Quillen equivalences. We show that $\mathbf{Mod}$ does not have pullbacks and so cannot form a model 2-category. This lack of pullbacks can be traced to the two-out-of-three axiom on the weak equivalences of a model category. Accordingly, we define a premodel category to be a complete and cocomplete category equipped with two nested weak factorization systems. Combinatorial premodel categories form a complete and cocomplete…
In a previous work, we have introduced a weakening of Quillen model categories called weak model categories. They still allow all the usual constructions of model category theory, but are easier to construct and are in some sense better behaved. In this paper we continue to develop their general theory by introducing combinatorial and accessible weak model categories. We give simple necessary and sufficient conditions under which such a weak model category can be extended into a left and/or right semi-model category. As an application, we recover Cisinski-Olschok theory and generalize it to we…
In [BaSc2], the author and Tomer Schlank introduced a much weaker homotopical structure than a model category, which we called a "weak cofibration category". We further showed that a small weak cofibration category induces in a natural way a model category structure on its indcategory, provided the ind-category satisfies a certain two out of three property. The main purpose of this paper is to give sufficient intrinsic conditions on a weak cofibration category for this two out of three property to hold. We consider an application to the category of compact metrizable spaces, and thus obtain a …
We investigate the categories of weak maps associated to an algebraic weak factorisation system (AWFS) in the sense of Grandis-Tholen. For any AWFS on a category with an initial object, cofibrant replacement forms a comonad, and the category of (left) weak maps associated to the AWFS is by definition the Kleisli category of this comonad. We exhibit categories of weak maps as a kind of "homotopy category", that freely adjoins a section for every "acyclic fibration" (=right map) of the AWFS; and using this characterisation, we give an alternate description of categories of weak maps in terms of …
In these notes we describe models of globular weak $(\infty,m)$-categories ($m\in\mathbb{N}$) in the Grothendieck style, i.e for each $m\in\mathbb{N}$ we define a globular coherator $Θ^{\infty}_{\mathbb{M}^m}$ whose set-models are globular weak $(\infty,m)$-categories. Then we describe the combinatorics of the small category $Θ_0$ whose objects are cubical pasting diagrams and whose morphisms are morphisms of cubical sets. This provides an accurate description of the monad, on the category of cubical sets (without degeneracies and connections), of cubical strict $\infty$-categories with connec…
