v3. 45 pages. Minor revision. Published version. [v2: Corrected an error in the proof of Lemma 3.4. Expanded/rewrote the proofs and added many pictures. Added a section on the Gray tensor product.]
Dimitri Ara's 2-quasi-categories, which are certain presheaves over André Joyal's 2-cell category $Θ_2$, are an example of a concrete model that realises the abstract notion of $(\infty,2)$-category. In this paper, we prove that the 2-quasi-categories and the fibrations into them can be characterised using the inner horn inclusions and the equivalence extensions introduced by David Oury. These maps are more tractable than the maps that Ara originally used and therefore our result can serve as a combinatorial foundation for the study of 2-quasi-categories.
The homotopy coherent nerve from simplicial categories to simplicial sets and its left adjoint C are important to the study of (infinity,1)-categories because they provide a means for comparing two models of their respective homotopy theories, giving a Quillen equivalence between the model structures for quasi-categories and simplicial categories. The functor C also gives a cofibrant replacement for ordinary categories, regarded as trivial simplicial categories. However, the hom-spaces of the simplicial category CX arising from a quasi-category X are not well understood. We show that when X is…
The most natural notion of a simplicial nerve for a (weak) bicategory was given by Duskin, who showed that a simplicial set is isomorphic to the nerve of a $(2,1)$-category (i.e. a bicategory with invertible $2$-morphisms) if and only if it is a quasicategory which has unique fillers for inner horns of dimension $3$ and greater. Using Duskin's technique, we show how his nerve applies to $(2,1)$-category functors, making it a fully faithful inclusion of $(2,1)$-categories into simplicial sets. Then we consider analogues of this extension of Duskin's result for several different two-dimensional …
We prove that the category of models of any relational Horn theory satisfying a mild syntactic condition is infinitely extensive. Central examples of such categories include the categories of preordered sets and partially ordered sets, and the categories of small $\mathscr{V}$-categories, (symmetric) pseudo-$\mathscr{V}$-metric spaces, and (symmetric) $\mathscr{V}$-metric spaces for a commutative unital quantale $\mathscr{V}$. We also explicitly characterize initial sources and final sinks in such categories, and in particular embeddings and quotients.
We construct a model structure on the category of cubical sets with connections whose cofibrations are the monomorphisms and whose fibrant objects are defined by the right lifting property with respect to inner open boxes, the cubical analogue of inner horns. We show that this model structure is Quillen equivalent to the Joyal model structure on simplicial sets via the triangulation functor. As an application, we show that cubical quasicategories admit a convenient notion of a mapping space, which we use to characterize the weak equivalences between fibrant objects in our model structure as DK…
This article investigates duals for bimodule categories over finite tensor categories. We show that finite bimodule categories form a tricategory and discuss the dualities in this tricategory using inner homs. We consider inner-product bimodule categories over pivotal tensor categories with additional structure on the inner homs. Inner-product module categories are related to Frobenius algebras and lead to the notion of $*$-Morita equivalence for pivotal tensor categories. We show that inner-product bimodule categories form a tricategory with two duality operations and an additional pivotal st…
For a relational Horn theory $\mathbb{T}$, we provide useful sufficient conditions for the exponentiability of objects and morphisms in the category $\mathbb{T}\text{-}\mathsf{Mod}$ of $\mathbb{T}$-models; well-known examples of such categories, which have found recent applications in the study of programming language semantics, include the categories of preordered sets and (extended) metric spaces. As a consequence, we obtain useful sufficient conditions for $\mathbb{T}\text{-}\mathsf{Mod}$ to be cartesian closed, locally cartesian closed, and even a quasitopos; in particular, we provide two …
Adobe Research（奥多比研究院）；University of Massachusetts, Amherst（马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校）
We present a unified formalism for structure discovery of causal models and predictive state representation (PSR) models in reinforcement learning (RL) using higher-order category theory. Specifically, we model structure discovery in both settings using simplicial objects, contravariant functors from the category of ordinal numbers into any category. Fragments of causal models that are equivalent under conditional independence -- defined as causal horns -- as well as subsequences of potential tests in a predictive state representation -- defined as predictive horns -- are both special cases of…
In algebraic geometry over a variety of universal algebras $Θ$, the group $Aut(Θ^{0})$ of automorphisms of the category $Θ^{0}$ of finitely generated free algebras of $Θ$ is of great importance. In this paper, semi-inner automorphisms are defined for the categories of free (semi)modules and free Lie modules; then, under natural conditions on a (semi)ring, it is shown that all automorphisms of those categories are semi-inner. We thus prove that for a variety $_{R}\mathcal{M}$ of semimodules over an IBN-semiring $R$ (an IBN-semiring is a semiring analog of a ring with IBN), all automorphisms of …
The category of dendroidal sets is an extension of that of simplicial sets, suitable for defining nerves of operads rather than just of categories. In this paper, we prove some basic properties of inner Kan complexes in the category of dendroidal sets. In particular, we extend fundamental results of Boardman and Vogt, of Cordier and Porter, and of Joyal to dendroidal sets.
In this paper we introduce a notion of {\it generalized operad} containing as special cases various kinds of operad--like objects: ordinary, cyclic, modular, properads etc. We then construct inner cohomomorphism objects in their categories (and categories of algebras over them). We argue that they provide an approach to symmetry and moduli objects in non-commutative geometries based upon these "ring--like" structures. We give a unified axiomatic treatment of generalized operads as functors on categories of abstract labeled graphs. Finally, we extend inner cohomomorphism constructions to more g…
In this work we propose a realization of Lurie's prediction that inner fibrations $p: X \rightarrow A$ are classified by $A$-indexed diagrams in a ``higher category" whose objects are $\infty$-categories, morphisms are correspondences between them and higher morphisms are higher correspondences. We will obtain this as a corollary of a more general result which classifies all simplicial maps between ordinary simplicial sets in a similar fashion. Correspondences between simplicial sets (and $\infty$-categories) are a generalization of the concept of profunctor (or bimodule) pertaining to categor…
We prove that the group of automorphisms of the category of free modules over Noterian rings is semi-inner and present also a short proof of a similar result for the variery of Lie algebras.
The homotopy theory of infinity-operads is defined by extending Joyal's homotopy theory of infinity-categories to the category of dendroidal sets. We prove that the category of dendroidal sets is endowed with a model category structure whose fibrant objects are the infinity-operads (i.e. dendroidal inner Kan complexes). This extends the theory of infinity-categories in the sense that the Joyal model category structure on simplicial sets whose fibrant objects are the infinity-categories is recovered from the model category structure on dendroidal sets by simply slicing over the point.
A new approach is suggested to characterize algebraically automorphisms of the category of free algebras of a given variety. It gives in many cases an answer to the problem set by the first of authors, if automorphisms of such a category are inner or not. This question is important for universal algebraic geometry [arXiv:math. GM\slash 0210187],[arXiv:math. GM\slash 0210194]. Most of results are actually valid for arbitrary categories with a represented forgetful functor.
Category theory in homotopy type theory is intricate as categorical laws can only be stated "up to homotopy", and thus require coherences. The established notion of a univalent category (Ahrens, Kapulkin, Shulman) solves this by considering only truncated types, roughly corresponding to an ordinary category. This fails to capture many naturally occurring structures, stemming from the fact that the naturally occurring structures in homotopy type theory are not ordinary, but rather higher categories. Out of the large variety of approaches to higher category theory that mathematicians have propos…
We give an example of a morphism of simplicial sets which is a monomorphism, bijective on 0-simplices, and a weak categorical equivalence, but which is not inner anodyne. This answers an open question of Joyal. Furthermore, we use this morphism to refute a plausible description of the class of fibrations in Joyal's model structure for quasi-categories.
Bergman has given the following abstract characterisation of the inner automorphisms of a group $G$: they are exactly those automorphisms of $G$ which can be extended functorially along any homomorphism $G \rightarrow H$ to an automorphism of $H$. This leads naturally to a definition of "inner automorphism" applicable to the objects of any category. Bergman and Hofstra--Parker--Scott have computed these inner automorphisms for various structures including $k$-algebras, monoids, lattices, unital rings, and quandles---showing that, in each case, they are given by an obvious notion of conjugation…
A Morita class of symmetric special Frobenius algebras A in the modular tensor category of a chiral CFT determines a full CFT on oriented world sheets. For unoriented world sheets, A must in addition possess a reversion, i.e. an isomorphism from A^opp to A squaring to the twist. Any two reversions of an algebra A differ by an element of the group Aut(A) of algebra automorphisms of A. We establish a group homomorphism from Aut(A) to the Picard group of the bimodule category C_AA, with kernel consisting of the inner automorphisms, and we refine Morita equivalence to an equivalence relation betwe…
Let V be a variety of algebras of some type. An interest to describing automorphisms of the category C of finitely generated free V-algebras was inspired in connection with development of universal algebraic geometry founded by B. Plotkin. There are a lot of results on this subject. A common method of getting such results was suggested and applied by B. Plotkin and the author (B. Plotkin , G. Zhitomirski, On automorphisms of categories of free algebras of some varieties, J. Algebra 306(2) (2006) 344-367). The method is to find all terms in the language of a given variety which determine such V…
The complex numbers are an important part of quantum theory, but are difficult to motivate from a theoretical perspective. We describe a simple formal framework for theories of physics, and show that if a theory of physics presented in this manner satisfies certain completeness properties, then it necessarily includes the complex numbers as a mathematical ingredient. Central to our approach are the techniques of category theory, and we introduce a new category-theoretical tool, called the dagger-limit, which governs the way in which systems can be combined to form larger systems. These dagger-…
We show that a quantum field theory A living on the line and having a group G of inner symmetries gives rise to a category GLoc A of twisted representations. This category is a braided crossed G-category in the sense of Turaev. Its degree zero subcategory is braided and equivalent to the usual representation category Rep A. Combining this with [29], where Rep A was proven to be modular for a nice class of rational conformal models, and with the construction of invariants of G-manifolds in [60], we obtain an equivariant version of the following chain of constructions: Rational CFT -> modular ca…
For single-sorted algebras, Fujiwara defined, through the concept of family of basic mapping-formulas, a notion of morphism which generalizes the ordinary notion of homomorphism between algebras and an equivalence relation, the conjugation, on the families of basic mapping-formulas, which corresponds to the relation of inner isomorphism for algebras. In this paper we extend the theory of Fujiwara about morphisms to the many-sorted algebras, by defining the concept of polyderivor between many-sorted signatures, which assigns to basic sorts, words and to formal operations, families of derived te…
