This document is centered around a main idea: simplicial categories, by which we mean simplicial objects in the category of categories, can be treated as a two-fold categorical structure and their double category theory is homotopically meaningful. The most well-known two-fold structures are double categories, typically used to organize bimodules in various contexts. However there is no double category of spaces even though notions of bimodule are conceivable. We first remedy this defect of double category theory by constructing a meaningful simplicial category of spaces. Then we develop the analogy with double categories by defining double colimits and by postulating an equipment property, which is promptly satisfied in the examples. As an application we prove that certain double colimits are naturally interpreted as homotopy colimits. Quite surprisingly this analogy unveils a principle: simplicial categories are to simplicially enriched categories what double categories are to 2-categories!
Like categories, small 2-categories have well-understood classifying spaces. In this paper, we deal with homotopy types represented by 2-diagrams of 2-categories. Our results extend to homotopy colimits of 2-functors lower categorical analogues that have been classically used in algebraic topology and algebraic K-theory, such as the Homotopy Invariance Theorem (by Bousfield and Kan), the Homotopy Colimit Theorem (Thomason), Theorems A and B (Quillen), or the Homotopy Cofinality Theorem (Hirschhorn).
Building on a previous definition of homotopy limit of model categories, we give a definition of homotopy colimit of model categories. Using the complete Segal space model for homotopy theories, we verify that this definition corresponds to the model-category-theoretic definition in that setting.
We show that the homotopy colimit construction for diagrams of categories with an operad action, recently introduced by Fiedorowicz, Stelzer and Vogt, has the desired homotopy type for diagrams of weak braided monoidal categories. This provides a more flexible way to realize E-2 spaces categorically.
The main objective of this paper is to show that the homotopy colimit of a diagram of quasi-categories and indexed by a small category is a localization of Lurie's higher Grothendieck construction of the diagram. We thereby generalize Thomason's classical result which states that the homotopy colimit of a diagram of categories has the homotopy type of (the classifying space of) the Grothendieck construction of the diagram of categories.
We show that homotopy pullbacks of sheaves of simplicial sets over a Grothendieck topology distribute over homotopy colimits; this generalizes a result of Puppe about topological spaces. In addition, we show that inverse image functors between categories of simplicial sheaves preserve homotopy pullback squares. The method we use introduces the notion of a sharp map, which is analogous to the notion of a quasi-fibration of spaces, and seems to be of independent interest.
Homotopy limits and colimits are homotopical replacements for the usual limits and colimits of category theory, which can be approached either using classical explicit constructions or the modern abstract machinery of derived functors. Our first goal in this paper is expository: we explain both approaches and a proof of their equivalence. Our second goal is to generalize this result to enriched categories and homotopy weighted limits, showing that the classical explicit constructions still give the right answer in the abstract sense. This result partially bridges the gap between classical homo…
Let $I$,$J$ be small categories and $C:I\times J@>>>\CAT$ a functor to the category of small categories. We show that if $I$ has a final object then the canonical map $\operatorname{hocolim}_J\operatorname{holim}_IC@>>>\operatorname{holim}_I \operatorname{hocolim}_JC$ is a strong homotopy equivalence.
In a previous article, we introduced notions of finiteness obstruction, Euler characteristic, and L^2-Euler characteristic for wide classes of categories. In this sequel, we prove the compatibility of those notions with homotopy colimits of I-indexed categories where I is any small category admitting a finite I-CW-model for its I-classifying space. Special cases of our Homotopy Colimit Formula include formulas for products, homotopy pushouts, homotopy orbits, and transport groupoids. We also apply our formulas to Haefliger complexes of groups, which extend Bass--Serre graphs of groups to highe…
We study the problem of existence and uniqueness of homotopy colimits in stable representation theory, where one typically does not have model category structures to guarantee that these homotopy colimits exist or have good properties. We get both negative results (homotopy cofibers fail to exist if there exist any objects of positive finite projective dimension!) and positive results (reasonable conditions under which homotopy colimits exist and are unique, even when model category structures fail to exist). Along the way, we obtain relative-homological-algebraic generalizations of classical …
For a small simplicial category A, we prove that the homotopy colimit functor from the category of simplicial diagrams on A to the category of simplicial sets over the homotopy-coherent nerve of A provides a left Quillen equivalence between the projective model structure on the former category and the covariant model structure on the latter. We compare this Quillen equivalence to the straightening-unstraightening equivalence previously established by Lurie, where the left adjoint goes in the opposite direction. The existence of left Quillen functors in both directions considerably simplifies t…
Higher Homotopy van Kampen Theorems allow the computation as colimits of certain homotopical invariants of glued spaces. One corollary is to describe homotopical excision in critical dimensions in terms of induced modules and crossed modules over groupoids. This paper shows how fibred and cofibred categories give an overall context for discussing and computing such constructions, allowing one result to cover many cases. A useful general result is that the inclusion of a fibre of a fibred category preserves connected colimits. The main homotopical application are to pairs of spaces with several…
In this paper we prove that for any model category, the Bousfield-Kan construction of the homotopy colimit is the absolute left derived functor of the colimit. This is achieved by showing that the Bousfield-Kan homotopy colimit is moreover a realizable homotopy colimit, defined by means of a suitable 2-category of relative categories. In addition, in the case of exact coproducts, we characterize the realizable homotopy colimits that satisfy a cofinality property as those given by a formula following the pattern of Bousfield-Kan construction: they are the composition of a "geometric realization…
We show that a derivator is stable if and only if homotopy finite limits and homotopy finite colimits commute, if and only if homotopy finite limit functors have right adjoints, and if and only if homotopy finite colimit functors have left adjoints. These characterizations generalize to an abstract notion of "stability relative to a class of functors", which includes in particular pointedness, semiadditivity, and ordinary stability. To prove them, we develop the theory of derivators enriched over monoidal left derivators and weighted homotopy limits and colimits therein.
In this short note, we provide a calculation of the Euler characteristic of a finite homotopy colimit of finite cell complexes, which depends only on the Euler characteristics of each space and resembles Mobius inversion. Versions of the result are known when the colimit is indexed by a finite category, but the behavior is more uniform when we index by finite quasicategories instead. The formula simultaneously generalizes the additive formula for Euler characteristic of a homotopy pushout and the multiplicative formula for Euler characteristic of a fiber bundle.
Given a small category C, we show that there is a universal way of expanding C into a model category, essentially by formally adjoining homotopy colimits. The technique of localization becomes a method for imposing `relations' into these universal gadgets. The paper develops this formalism and discusses various applications, for instance to the study of homotopy colimits, the Dwyer-Kan theory of framings, and to the homotopy theory of schemes.
A variant of the trace in a monoidal category is given in the setting of closed monoidal derivators, which is applicable to endomorphisms of fiberwise dualizable objects. Functoriality of this trace is established. As an application, an explicit formula for the trace of the homotopy colimit of endomorphisms over finite EI-categories is deduced. This result can be seen as a generalization of the additivity of traces in monoidal categories with a compatible triangulation.
We gather conditions on a class H of continuous maps of topological spaces that allow a reasonable theory of fibrations up to an equivalence (a map from this class) which we call H-fibrations. The weak homotopy equivalences recover quasifibrations and homology equivalences yield homology fibrations. We study local H-fibrations that behave nicely with respect to homotopy colimits together with universal H-fibrations that behave nicely with respect to pullbacks. We then proceed to classify H-fibrations up to a natural notion of equivalence.
We use a classical result of McCord and reduction methods of finite spaces to prove a generalization of Thomason's theorem on homotopy colimits over posets. In particular this allows us to characterize the homotopy colimits of diagrams of simplicial complexes in terms of the Grothendieck construction on the diagrams of their face posets. We also derive analogues of well known results on homotopy colimits in the combinatorial setting, including a cofinality theorem and a generalization of Quillen's Theorem A for posets.
For a small category A, we prove that the homotopy colimit functor from the category of simplicial diagrams on A to the category of simplicial sets over the nerve of A establishes a left Quillen equivalence between the projective (or Reedy) model structure on the former category and the covariant model structure on the latter. We compare this equivalence to a Quillen equivalence in the opposite direction previously established by Lurie. From our results we deduce that a categorical equivalence of simplicial sets induces a Quillen equivalence on the corresponding over-categories, equipped with …
We extend the notion of simplicial set with effective homology to diagrams of simplicial sets. Further, for a given finite diagram of simplicial sets $X \colon \mathcal{I} \to \mathsf{sSet}$ such that each simplicial set $X(i)$ has effective homology, we present an algorithm computing the homotopy colimit $\mathsf{hocolim} X$ as a simplicial set with effective homology. We also give an algorithm computing the cofibrant replacement $X^\mathsf{cof}$ of $X$ as a diagram with effective homology. This is applied to computing of equivariant cohomology operations.
In this paper we prove that various quasi-categories whose objects are $\infty$-categories in a very general sense are complete: admitting limits indexed by all simplicial sets. This result and others of a similar flavor follow from a general theorem in which we characterize the data that is required to define a limit cone in a quasi-category constructed as a homotopy coherent nerve. Since all quasi-categories arise this way up to equivalence, this analysis covers the general case. Namely, we show that quasi-categorical limit cones may be modeled at the point-set level by pseudo homotopy limit…
We construct a new cylinder object for semifree differential graded (dg) categories in the category of dg categories. Using this, we give a practical formula computing homotopy colimits of semifree dg categories. Combining it with the result of Ganatra, Pardon, and Shende, we get a formula computing wrapped Fukaya categories of Weinstein manifolds using their sectorial coverings. This formula has lots of applications including a practical computation of the wrapped Fukaya category of any cotangent bundle or plumbing space. In this paper, we compute wrapped Fukaya categories of cotangent bundle…
We study the left adjoint $\mathbb{D}$ to the forgetful functor from the $\infty$-category of symmetric monoidal $\infty$-categories with duals and finite colimits to the $\infty$-category of symmetric monoidal $\infty$-categories with finite colimits, and related free constructions. The main result is that $\mathbb{D} \mathcal C$ always splits as the product of 3 factors, each characterized by a certain universal property. As an application, we show that, for any compact Lie group $G$, the $\infty$-category of genuine $G$-spectra is obtained from the $\infty$-category of Bredon (\emph{a.k.a} …
We extend Thomason's homotopy colimit construction in the category of permutative categories to categories of algebras over an arbitrary $\Cat$ operad and analyze its properties. We then use this homotopy colimit to prove that the classifying space functor induces an equivalence between the category of $n$-fold monoidal categories and the category of $\mathcal{C}_n$-spaces after formally inverting certain classes of weak equivalences, where $\mathcal{C}_n$ is the little $n$-cubes operad. As a consequence we obtain an equivalence of the categories of $n$-fold monoidal categories and the categor…
The main characters of this paper are the moduli spaces $TM_{g,n}$ of rational tropical curves of genus $g$ with $n$ marked points, with $g\geq 2$. We reduce the study of the homotopy type of these spaces to the analysis of compact spaces $X_{g,n}$, which in turn possess natural representations as a homotopy colimits of diagrams of topological spaces over combinatorially defined generalized simplicial complexes $Δ_g$, with the latter being interesting on their own right. We use these homotopy colimit representations to describe a CW complex decomposition for each $X_{g,n}$. Furthermore, we use…
We study diagrams associated with a finite simplicial complex K, in various algebraic and topological categories. We relate their colimits to familiar structures in algebra, combinatorics, geometry and topology. These include: right-angled Artin and Coxeter groups (and their complex analogues, which we call circulation groups); Stanley-Reisner algebras and coalgebras; Davis and Januszkiewicz's spaces DJ(K) associated with toric manifolds and their generalisations; and coordinate subspace arrangements. When K is a flag complex, we extend well-known results on Artin and Coxeter groups by confirm…
The classifying space BG of a topological group $G$ can be filtered by a sequence of subspaces $B(q,G)$, using the descending central series of free groups. If $G$ is finite, describing them as homotopy colimits is convenient when applying homotopy theoretic methods. In this paper we introduce natural subspaces $B(q,G)_p$ of $B(q,G)$ defined for a fixed prime $p$. We show that $B(q,G)$ is stably homotopy equivalent to a wedge of $B(q,G)_p$ as $p$ runs over the primes dividing the order of $G$. Colimits of abelian groups play an important role in understanding the homotopy type of these spaces.…
The comparison map from bounded cohomology to singular cohomology plays an important role in the study of bounded cohomology theory and its applications. The vanishing and covering theorems of Gromov and Ivanov show interesting and useful properties of the comparison map under appropriate assumptions. We discuss an approach to these theorems, based on the general homotopy-theoretic properties of the comparison map, and obtain new proofs and refined versions of these results.
We show that cellular approximations of nilpotent Postnikov stages are always nilpotent Postnikov stages, in particular classifying spaces of nilpotent groups are turned into classifying spaces of nilpotent groups. We use a modified Bousfield-Kan homology completion tower z_k X whose terms we prove are all X-cellular for any X. As straightforward consequences, we show that if X is K-acyclic and nilpotent for a given homology theory K, then so are all its Postnikov sections, and that any nilpotent space for which the space of pointed self-maps map_*(X,X) is "canonically" discrete must be aspher…
We recall a group-theoretic description of the first non-vanishing homotopy group of a certain (n+1)-ad of spaces and show how it yields several formulae for homotopy and homology groups of specific spaces. In particular we obtain an alternative proof of J. Wu's group-theoretic description of the homotopy groups of a 2-sphere.
Let $\mathcal C$ be a $\mathcal V$-enriched model category. We say that an object $x$ of $\mathcal C$ is homotopy tiny if the total right derived functor of $\mathcal C(x, -) : \mathcal{C} \rightarrow {\mathcal V}$ preserves homotopy weighted colimits. Let $\mathcal C_0$ be a full subcategory of $\mathcal C$ all of whose objects are homotopy tiny. Our main result says that the homotopy category of the category generated by $\mathcal C_0$ under weak equivalences and homotopy weighted colimits is equivalent to the homotopy category of the category $\mathcal V^{\mathcal C_0^{op}}$ of $\mathcal V$…
Cofibration categories are a formalization of homotopy theory useful for dealing with homotopy colimits that exist on the level of models as colimits of cofibrant diagrams. In this paper, we deal with their enriched version. Our main result claims that the category $[\mathcal{C},\mathcal{M}]$ of enriched diagrams equipped with the projective structure inherits a structure of a cofibration category whenever $\mathcal{C}$ is locally cofibrant (or, more generally, locally flat).
We study chain complexes of field configurations and observables for Abelian gauge theory on contractible manifolds, and show that they can be extended to non-contractible manifolds by using techniques from homotopy theory. The extension prescription yields functors from a category of manifolds to suitable categories of chain complexes. The extended functors properly describe the global field and observable content of Abelian gauge theory, while the original gauge field configurations and observables on contractible manifolds are recovered up to a natural weak equivalence.
This paper contains some contributions to the study of the relationship between 2-categories and the homotopy types of their classifying spaces. Mainly, generalizations are given of both Quillen's Theorem B and Thomason's Homotopy Colimit Theorem to 2-functors.
We define a notion of colimit for diagrams in a motivic category indexed by a presheaf of spaces (e.g. an étale classifying space), and we study basic properties of this construction. As a case study, we construct the motivic analogs of the classical extended and generalized powers, which refine the categorical versions of these constructions as special cases. We also offer more computationally tractable models of these constructions using equivariant motivic homotopy theory. This is the first in a series of papers on power operations in motivic stable homotopy theory.
An affine monoid is an additive monoid which is cancellative, pointed and finitely generated. An affine monoid $Λ$ has the partial order defined by $λ\le λ+ μ$. The Frobenius complex is the order complex of an open interval of $Λ$ with respect to this partial order. The reduced homology of the Frobenius complex is related to the torsion group of the monoid algebra $K[Λ]$. In this paper, we pay attention to homotopy types of Frobenius complexes, and we express the homotopy types of the Frobenius complexes of $Λ$ in terms of those of $Λ_1$ and $Λ_2$ when $Λ$ is an affine monoid obtained by gluin…
This paper develops a theory of colimit sketches "with constructions" in higher category theory, formalising the input to the ubiquitous procedure of adjoining specified "constructible" colimits to a category such that specified "relation" colimits are enforced (or preserved). From a more technical standpoint, sketches are a way to describe dense functors using techniques from the homotopy theory of diagrams. We establish basic properties of diagrams in an infinity-category C as a model for presheaves on C and Bousfield localisations thereof, discuss extensions of functors and adjunctions, and…
We develop a homotopy theory of categories enriched in a monoidal model category V. In particular, we deal with homotopy weighted limits and colimits, and homotopy local presentability. The main result, which was known for simplicially-enriched categories, links homotopy locally presentable V-categories with combinatorial model V-categories, in the case where has all objects of V are cofibrant.
We show that every small homotopy functor from spectra to spectra is weakly equivalent to a filtered colimit of representable functors represented in cofibrant spectra. Moreover, we present this classification as a Quillen equivalence of the category of small functors from spectra to spectra equipped with the homotopy model structure and the opposite of the pro-category of spectra with the strict model structure.
We define Anderson-Brown-Cisinski (ABC) cofibration categories, and construct homotopy colimits of diagrams of objects in ABC cofibration categories. Homotopy colimits for Quillen model categories are obtained as a particular case. We attach to each ABC cofibration category a left Heller derivator. A dual theory is developed for homotopy limits in ABC fibration categories and for right Heller derivators. These constructions provide a natural framework for 'doing homotopy theory' in ABC (co)fibration categories.
Theorem (after Giraud, SGA 4): Suppose $A$ is a simplicial category. The following conditions are equivalent: (i) There is a cofibrantly generated closed model category $M$ such that $A$ is equivalent to the Dwyer-Kan simplicial localization $L(M)$; (ii) $A$ admits all small homotopy colimits, and there is a small subset of objects of $A$ which are $A$-small, and which generate $A$ by homotopy colimits; (iii) There exists a small 1-category $C$ and a morphism $g:C\to A$ sending objects of $C$ to $A$-small objects, which induces a fully faithful inclusion $i:A\to \hat{C}$, such that $i$ admits …
In this paper we develop homotopy theoretical methods for studying diagrams. In particular we explain how to construct homotopy colimits and limits in an arbitrary model category. The key concept we introduce is that of a model approximation. Our key result says that if a category admits a model approximation then so does any diagram category with values in this category. From the homotopy theoretical point of view categories with model approximations have similar properties to those of model categories. They admit homotopy categories (localizations with respect to weak equivalences). They als…
We provide, among other things: (i) a Bousfield--Kan formula for colimits in $\infty$-categories (generalizing the 1-categorical formula for a colimit as a coequalizer of maps between coproducts); (ii) $\infty$-categorical generalizations of Barwick--Kan's Theorem B$_n$ and Dwyer--Kan--Smith's Theorem C$_n$ (regarding homotopy pullbacks in the Thomason model structure, which themselves vastly generalize Quillen's Theorem B); and (iii) an articulation of the simultaneous and interwoven functoriality of colimits (or dually, of limits) for natural transformations and for pullback along maps of di…
This paper explores the relationship amongst the various simplicial and pseudo-simplicial objects characteristically associated to any bicategory C. It proves the fact that the geometric realizations of all of these possible candidate `nerves of C' are homotopy equivalent. Any one of these realizations could therefore be taken as the classifying space BC of the bicategory. Its other major result proves a direct extension of Thomason's `Homotopy Colimit Theorem' to bicategories: When the homotopy colimit construction is carried out on a diagram of spaces obtained by applying the classifying spa…
We argue for the addition of category theory to the toolkit of toric topology, by surveying recent examples and applications. Our case is made in terms of toric spaces X_K, such as moment-angle complexes Z_K, quasitoric manifolds M, and Davis-Januszkiewicz spaces DJ(K). We first exhibit X_K as the homotopy colimit of a diagram of spaces over the small category cat(K), whose objects are the faces of a finite simplicial complex K and morphisms their inclusions. Then we study the corresponding cat(K)-diagrams in various algebraic Quillen model categories, and interpret their homotopy colimits as …
We show that in any symmetric monoidal category, if a weight for colimits is absolute, then the resulting colimit of any diagram of dualizable objects is again dualizable. Moreover, in this case, if an endomorphism of the colimit is induced by an endomorphism of the diagram, then its trace can be calculated as a linear combination of traces on the objects in the diagram. The formal nature of this result makes it easy to generalize to traces in homotopical contexts (using derivators) and traces in bicategories. These generalizations include the familiar additivity of the Euler characteristic an…
The main objective of this paper is to construct a homotopy colimit functor on a category of functors taking values in the model category of quasi-categories.
