Our main result states that for each finite complex L the category ${\bf TOP}$ of topological spaces possesses a model category structure (in the sense of Quillen) whose weak equivalences are precisely maps which induce isomorphisms of all [L]-homotopy groups. The concept of [L]-homotopy has earlier been introduced by the first author and is based on Dranishnikov's notion of extension dimension. As a corollary we obtain an algebraic characterization of [L]-homotopy equivalences between [L]-complexes. This result extends two classical theorems of J. H. C. Whitehead. One of them -- describing homotopy equivalences between CW-complexes as maps inducing isomorphisms of all homotopy groups -- is obtained by letting $L = \{{\rm point}\}$. The other -- describing n-homomotopy equivalences between at most $(n+1)$-dimensional CW-complexes as maps inducing isomorophisms of k-dimensional homotopy groups with $k \leq n$ -- by letting $L = S^{n+1}$, $n \geq 0$.
We present a combinatorial analogue of the nerve theorem for covers of small categories, using the Grothendieck construction. We apply our result to prove the inclusion-exclusion principle for the Euler characteristic of a finite category.
In this paper we show that both the homotopy category of strict $n$-categories, $1\leqslant n \leqslant \infty$, and the homotopy category of Steiner's augmented directed complexes are equivalent to the category of homotopy types. In order to do so, we first prove an abstract result, based on a strategy of Fritsch and Latch, giving sufficient conditions for a nerve functor with values in simplicial sets to induce an equivalence at the level of homotopy categories. We then apply this result to strict $n$-categories and augmented directed complexes, for which the hypothesis of our theorem were e…
We show that for the homotopy category K(Ab) of complexes of abelian groups, both Brown representability and Brown representability for the dual fail. We also provide an example of a localizing subcategory of K(Ab) for which the inclusion into K(Ab) does not have a right adjoint.
We extend the homotopy theories based on point reduction for finite spaces and simplicial complexes to finite acyclic categories and $Δ$-complexes, respectively. The functors of classifying spaces and face posets are compatible with these homotopy theories. In contrast with the classical settings of finite spaces and simplicial complexes, the universality of morphisms and simplices plays a central role in this paper.
We compute the collection of CW-complexes in the model category of small categories constructed by Joyal and Tierney. More generally, if $X$ is a connected topological space, we show that the homotopy category of CW-complexes in Joyal-Tierney's model category of sheaves of sets on $X$ is equivalent to the homotopy category of groupoids. As an application of the ideas, we show that the algebraic $K$-theory groups of the category of pointed small categories are trivial, and more generally, the algebraic $K$-theory groups of any sufficiently "nice" Waldhausen category $\mathcal{A}$ of pointed sma…
We show that the homotopy category of complexes K(B) over any finitely accessible additive category B is locally well generated. That is, any localizing subcategory L in K(B) which is generated by a set is well generated in the sense of Neeman. We also show that K(B) itself being well generated is equivalent to B being pure semisimple, a concept which naturally generalizes right pure semisimplicity of a ring R for B = Mod-R.
In this paper we study the homotopy limits of cosimplicial diagrams of dg-categories. We first give an explicit construction of the totalization of such a diagram and then show that the totalization agrees with the homotopy limit in the following two cases: (1) the complexes of sheaves of $\mathcal O$-modules on the Čech nerve of an open cover of a ringed space $(X, \mathcal O)$; (2) the complexes of sheaves on the simplicial nerve of a discrete group $G$ acting on a space. The explicit models we obtain in this way are twisted complexes as well as their $D$-module and $G$-equivariant versions.…
This paper displays complexity reduction techniques for calculations of path categories (or fundamental categories) P(K) for finite simplicial and cubical complexes K. The central technique involves identifying inclusions of complexes for which the induced functor of path categories is fully faithful. Refinements of cubical complex structures are discussed. A first method for parallelizing the calculation of path categories for cubical complexes is introduced.
We call product generator of an additive category a fixed object satisfying the property that every other object is a direct factor of a product of copies of it. In this paper we start with an additive category with products and images, e.g. a module category, and we are concerned with the homotopy category of complexes with entries in that additive category. We prove that Brown representability theorem is valid for the dual of the homotopy category if and only if the initial additive category has a product generator.
Let $R$ be a ring with identity. Inspired by recent work of Emmanouil, we show that the derived category of $R$ is equivalent to the chain homotopy category of all K-flat complexes with pure-injective components. This is implicitly related to a recollement we exhibit. It expresses $\mathcal{D}_{pur}(R)$, the pure derived category of $R$, as an attachment of the usual derived category $\mathcal{D}(R)$ with Emmanouil's quotient category $\mathcal{D}_{K-flat}(R):=K(R)/K-Flat$, which here we call the K-flat derived category. It follows that this Verdier quotient is a compactly generated triangulat…
The theorem of the title is deduced from the equivalence between crossed complexes and cubical $ω$-groupoids with connections proved by the authors in 1981. In fact we prove the equivalence of five categories defined internally to an additive category with kernels.
The results of a previous paper on the equivariant homotopy theory of crossed complexes are generalised from the case of a discrete group to general topological groups. The principal new ingredient necessary for this is an analysis of homotopy coherence theory for crossed complexes, using detailed results on the appropriate Eilenberg-Zilber theory from Tonks' thesis, and of its relation to simplicial homotopy coherence. Again, our results give information not just on the homotopy classification of certain equivariant maps, but also on the weak equivariant homotopy type of the corresponding equ…
Let $R$ be a ring and Ch($R$) the category of chain complexes of $R$-modules. We put an abelian model structure on Ch($R$) whose homotopy category is equivalent to $K(Proj)$, the homotopy category of all complexes of projectives. However, the cofibrant objects are not complexes of projectives, but rather all complexes of flat modules. The trivial objects are what Positselski calls contraacyclic complexes and so the homotopy category coincides with his contraderived category. We in fact construct this model on the category of chain complexes of quasi-coherent sheaves on any scheme $X$ admitting…
This paper corrects a small mistake in a paper of Dwyer-Kan, and uses this to identify homotopy function complexes in a model category with the nerves of certain categories of zig-zags.
Triangulated categories arising in algebra can often be described as the homotopy category of a pretriangulated dg-category, a category enriched in chain complexes with a natural notion of shifts and cones that is accessible with all the machinery of homological algebra. Dg-categories are algebraic models of $\infty$-categories and thus fit into a wide ecosystem of higher-categorical models and translations between them. In this paper we describe an equivalence between two methods to turn a pretriangulated dg-category into a quasicategory. The dg-nerve of a dg-category is a quasicategory whose…
We define the notion of duality categories as generalization of duality groups. Two examples are treated. The first is the Serre duality in the categories of strict polynomial functors. The second concerns finite complexes. We show in particular that finite Tits buildings are duality categories.
Classical homological algebra considers chain complexes, resolutions, and derived functors in additive categories. We describe "track algebras in dimension n", which generalize additive categories, and we define higher order chain complexes, resolutions, and derived functors. We show that higher order resolutions exist in higher track categories, and that they determine higher order Ext-groups. In particular, the E_m-term of the Adams spectral sequence (m<n+3) is a higher order Ext-group, which is determined by the track algebra of higher cohomology operations.
We apply the Dwyer-Kan theory of homotopy function complexes in model categories to the study of mapping spaces in quasi-categories. Using this, together with our work on rigidification from [DS1], we give a streamlined proof of the Quillen equivalence between quasi-categories and simplicial categories. Some useful material about relative mapping spaces in quasi-categories is developed along the way.
We introduce Reeb complexes in order to capture how generators of homology flow along sections of a real valued continuous function. This intuition suggests a close relation of Reeb complexes to established methods in topological data analysis such as levelset zigzags and persistent homology. We make this relation precise and in particular explain how Reeb complexes and levelset zigzags can be extracted from the first pages of respective spectral sequences with the same termination.
We introduce the notion of algebraic fibrant objects in a general model category and establish a (combinatorial) model category structure on algebraic fibrant objects. Based on this construction we propose algebraic Kan complexes as an algebraic model for oo-groupoids and algebraic quasi-categories as an algebraic model for (oo,1)-categories. We furthermore give an explicit proof of the homotopy hypothesis.
We put a monoidal model category structure on the category of chain complexes of quasi-coherent sheaves over a quasi-compact and semi-separated scheme X. The approach generalizes and simplifies methods used by the author to build monoidal model structures on the category of chain complexes of modules over a ring and chain complexes of sheaves over a ringed space. Indeed, much of the paper is dedicated to showing that in any Grothendieck category G, a nice enough class of objects, which we call a Kaplansky class, induces a model structure on the category Ch(G) of chain complexes. We also find s…
We consider a fixed basis of a finitely generated free chain complex as a finite topological space and we present a sufficient condition for the singular homology of this space to be isomorphic with the homology of the chain complex.
We study the Postnikov tower of the classifying space of a compact Lie group P(n,mn), which gives obstructions to lifting a topological Brauer class of period $n$ to a PU_{mn}-torsor, where the base space is a CW complex of dimension 8. Combined with the study of a twisted version of Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence, this solves the topological period-index problem for CW complexes of dimension 8.
We complete the study of the topological period-index problem over 8 dimensional finite CW complexes started in a preceding paper. More precisely, we determine the sharp upper bound of the index of a topological Brauer class $α\in H^3(X;\mathbb{Z})$, where $X$ is of the homotopy type of an 8 dimensional finite CW complex and the period of $α$ is divisible by 4.
Let $R$ be any ring with identity. We show that the homotopy category of all acyclic chain complexes of pure-projective $R$-modules is a compactly generated triangulated category. We do this by constructing abelian model structures that put this homotopy category into a recollement with two other compactly generated triangulated categories: The usual derived category of $R$ and the pure derived category of $R$. This also gives a new model for the derived category.
In this paper we introduce a new model of random simplicial complexes depending on multiple probability parameters. This model includes the well-known Linial - Meshulam random simplicial complexes and random clique complexes as special cases. Topological and geometric properties of a multi-parameter random simplicial complex depend on the whole combination of the probability parameters and the thresholds for topological properties are convex sets rather than numbers (as in all previously known models). We discuss the containment properties, density domains and dimension of the random simplicia…
We study liftings of abelian model structures to categories of chain complexes and construct a realization functor from the derived category of a Grothendieck abelian category equipped with a cofibrantly generated, hereditary abelian model structure to the homotopy category of that model structure.
Chain complexes of finitely generated free modules over orbit categories provide natural algebraic models for finite G-CW complexes with prescribed isotropy. We prove a p-hypoelementary Dress induction theorem for K-theory over the orbit category of a finite group, and use it to re-interpret some results of Oliver and Kropholler-Wall on acyclic complexes.
In this paper we prove that a morphism between schemes or stacks naturally corresponds to a symmetric monoidal functor between stable infinity-categories of quasi-coherent complexes. It can be viewed as a derived analogue of Tannaka duality. As a consequence, we deduce that an algebraic stack satisfying a certain condition can be recovered from the stable infinity-category of quasi-coherent complexes with tensor operation.
We set the foundations for a new approach to Topological Data Analysis (TDA) based on homotopical methods at chain complexes level. We present the category of tame parametrised chain complexes as a comprehensive environment that includes several cases that usually TDA handles separately, such as persistence modules, zigzag modules, and commutative ladders. We extract new invariants in this category using a model structure and various minimal cofibrant approximations. Such approximations and their invariants retain some of the topological, and not just homological, aspects of the objects they a…
Let $X$ be a two-cell complex with attaching map $α\colon S^q\to S^p$, and let $C_X$ be the cofiber of the diagonal inclusion $X\to X\times X$. It is shown that the topological complexity (${\rm TC}$) of $X$ agrees with the Lusternik-Schnirelmann category (${\rm cat}$) of $C_X$ in the (almost stable) range $q\leq2p-1$. In addition, the equality ${\rm TC}(X)={\rm cat}(C_X)$ is proved in the (strict) metastable range $2p-1<q\leq3(p-1)$ under fairly mild conditions by making use of the Hopf invariant techniques recently developed by the authors in their study of the sectional category of arbitrar…
We give combinatorial models for the homotopy type of complements of elliptic arrangements (i.e., certain sets of abelian subvarieties in a product of elliptic curves). We give a presentation of the fundamental group of such spaces and, as an application, we treat the case of ordered configuration spaces of elliptic curves. Our models are finite polyhedral CW complexes, and our combinatorial tools of choice are acyclic categories (small categories without loops). As a stepping stone, we give a characterization of which acyclic categories arise as face categories of polyhedral CW complexes.
The main invariant to study the combinatorics of a simplicial complex $K$ is the associated face ring or Stanley-Reisner algebra. Reisner respectively Stanley explained in which sense Cohen-Macaulay and Gorenstein properties of the face ring are reflected by geometric and/or combinatoric properties of the simplicial complex. We give a new proof for these result by homotopy theoretic methods and constructions. Our approach is based on ideas used very successfully in the analysis of the homotopy theory of classifying spaces.
Given any modular category $\mathcal{C}$ over an algebraically closed field $k$, we extract a sequence $(M_g)_{g\geq 0}$ of $\mathcal{C}$-bimodules. We show that the Hochschild chain complex $CH(\mathcal{C};M_g)$ of $\mathcal{C}$ with coefficients in $M_g$ carries a canonical homotopy coherent projective action of the mapping class group of the surface of genus $g+1$. The ordinary Hochschild complex of $\mathcal{C}$ corresponds to $CH(\mathcal{C};M_0)$. This result is obtained as part of the following more comprehensive topological structure: We construct a symmetric monoidal functor $\mathfra…
We introduce and compare two approaches to equivariant homotopy theory in a topological or ordinary Quillen model category. For the topological model category of spaces, we generalize Piacenza's result that the categories of topological presheaves indexed by the orbit category of a fixed topological group $G$ and the category of $G$-spaces can be endowed with Quillen equivalent model category structures. We prove an analogous result for any cofibrantly generated model category and discrete group $G$, under certain conditions on the fixed point functors of the subgroups of $G$. These conditions…
By comparing the Postnikov towers of the classifying spaces of projective unitary groups and the differentials in a twisted Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence, we deduce a lower bound on the topological index in terms of the period, and solve the topological version of the period-index problem in full for finite CW complexes of dimension at most 6. Conditions are established that, if they were met in the cohomology of a smooth complex 3-fold variety, would disprove the ordinary period-index conjecture. Examples of higher-dimensional varieties meeting these conditions are provided. We use our …
Čech complexes are useful simplicial complexes for computing and analyzing topological features of data that lies in Euclidean space. Unfortunately, computing these complexes becomes prohibitively expensive for large-sized data sets even for medium-to-low dimensional data. We present an approximation scheme for $(1+ε)$-approximating the topological information of the Čech complexes for $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$, for $ε\in(0,1]$. Our approximation has a total size of $n\left(\frac{1}ε\right)^{O(d)}$ for constant dimension $d$, improving all the currently available $(1+ε)$-approximation schem…
For random graphs, the containment problem considers the probability that a binomial random graph $G(n,p)$ contains a given graph as a substructure. When asking for the graph as a topological minor, i.e., for a copy of a subdivision of the given graph, it is well-known that the (sharp) threshold is at $p=1/n$. We consider a natural analogue of this question for higher-dimensional random complexes $X^k(n,p)$, first studied by Cohen, Costa, Farber and Kappeler for $k=2$. Improving previous results, we show that $p=Θ(1/\sqrt{n})$ is the (coarse) threshold for containing a subdivision of any fixed…
We construct a zig-zag of Quillen adjunctions between the homotopy theories of differential graded and simplicial categories. In an intermediate step we generalize Shipley-Schwede's work on connective DG algebras by extending the Dold-Kan correspondence to a Quillen equivalence between categories enriched over positive graded chain complexes and simplicial k-modules. As an application we obtain a conceptual explanation of Simpson's homotopy fiber construction.
We recall first Gallai-simplicial complex $Δ_Γ(G)$ associated to Gallai graph $Γ(G)$ of a planar graph $G$. The Euler characteristic is a very useful topological and homotopic invariant to classify surfaces. In Theorems 3.2 and 3.4, we compute Euler characteristics of Gallai-simplicial complexes associated to triangular ladder and prism graphs, respectively. Let $G$ be a finite simple graph on $n$ vertices of the form $n=3l+2$ or $3l+3$. In Theorem 4.4, we prove that $G$ will be $f$-Gallai graph for the following types of constructions of $G$. Type 1. When $n=3l+2$. $G=\mathbb{S}_{4l}$ is a gr…
Random shapes arise naturally in many contexts. The topological and geometric structure of such objects is interesting for its own sake, and also for applications. In physics, for example, such objects arise naturally in quantum gravity, in material science, and in other settings. Stochastic topology may also be considered as a null hypothesis for topological data analysis. In this chapter we overview combinatorial aspects of stochastic topology. We focus on the topological and geometric properties of random simplicial complexes. We introduce a few of the fundamental models in Section 23.1. We…