The paper examines machines of the type of the $Γ$-spaces of Segal which describe homotopy structures on topological spaces. The main result of the paper shows that for any such machine one can find an algebraic theory characterizing the same structure on spaces as the original machine.
An algebraic theory $T$ is a category with objects $t_0,t_2...$ such that for each $n$ the object $t_n$ is an $n$-fold categorical product of $t_1$. A strict $T$-algebra is a product preserving functor $A: T\to Spaces$. Lawvere showed that for a suitable choice of T giving such an algebra amounts to providing the space $A(t_1)$ with a familiar structure of a monoid group, ring, Lie algebra... Given a functor $X: T\to Spaces$ which preserves products up to a weak equivalence we show that $X$ is more or less canonically weakly equivalent to a strict $T$-algebra $LX$. Thus any `homotopy' algebrai…
Badzioch and Bergner proved a rigidification theorem saying that each homotopy simplicial algebra is weakly equivalent to a simplicial algebra. The question is whether this result can be extended from algebraic theories to finite limit theories and from simplicial sets to more general monoidal model categories. We will present some answers to this question.
I exhibit a pair of non-symmetric operads that, although not themselves isomorphic, induce isomorphic monads. The existence of such a pair implies that if `algebraic theory' is understood as meaning `monad', operads cannot be regarded as algebraic theories of a special kind.
Generalizing a result of Dwyer and Kan for simplicial categories, we characterize the morphisms of multi-sorted simplicial algebraic theories and simplicial coloured operads which induce a Quillen equivalence between the corresponding categories of algebras.
In these proceedings we summarize previous work where we formalize a general concept of algebraic field theories using operads. After giving a gentle reminder of algebraic quantum field theory, operads and their algebras, we construct field theory operads, whose algebras are exactly algebraic field theories. Specifically, they satisfy a suitable version of the Einstein causality axiom. From this construction we get adjunctions between different types of field theories, including adjunctions related to local-to-global extensions and the time-slice axiom, and a quantization functor for linear fi…
We adapt the notion of an algebraic theory to work in the setting of quasicategories developed recently by Joyal and Lurie. We develop the general theory at some length. We study one extended example in detail: the theory of commutative monoids (which turns out to be essentially just a 2-category). This gives a straightforward, combinatorially explicit, and instructive notion of a commutative monoid. We prove that this definition is equivalent (in appropriate senses) both to the classical concept of an E-infinity monoid and to Lurie's concept of a commutative algebra object.
We adapt the classical framework of algebraic theories to work in the setting of (infinity,1)-categories developed by Joyal and Lurie. This gives a suitable approach for describing highly structured objects from homotopy theory. A central example, treated at length, is the theory of E_infinity spaces: this has a tidy combinatorial description in terms of span diagrams of finite sets. We introduce a theory of distributive laws, allowing us to describe objects with two distributing E_infinity stuctures. From this we produce a theory of E_infinity ring spaces. We also study grouplike objects, and…
Relying on results of Hopkins-Morel, we show that, for $X$ a quasi-projective variety over a field of characteristic zero, the canonical map $Ω_n(X)\to MGL_{2n,n}'(X)$ is an isomorphism. Here $Ω_*(X)$ is the theory of algebraic cobordism defined by Levine-Morel, and $MGL_{*,*}'$ is the Borel-Moore homology version of the theory of algebraic cobordism defined via the algebraic Thom complex in the Morel-Voevodsky motivic stable homotopy category.
We show that the derived center of the category of simplicial algebras over every algebraic theory is homotopically discrete, with the abelian monoid of components isomorphic to the center of the category of discrete algebras. For example, in the case of commutative algebras in characteristic $p$, this center is freely generated by Frobenius. Our proof involves the calculation of homotopy coherent centers of categories of simplicial presheaves as well as of Bousfield localizations. Numerous other classes of examples are discussed.
Motivated by gauge theory, we develop a general framework for chain complex valued algebraic quantum field theories. Building upon our recent operadic approach to this subject, we show that the category of such theories carries a canonical model structure and explain the important conceptual and also practical consequences of this result. As a concrete application we provide a derived version of Fredenhagen's universal algebra construction, which is relevant e.g. for the BRST/BV formalism. We further develop a homotopy theoretical generalization of algebraic quantum field theory with a particu…
This paper is to construct unstable, Morita stable and stable bivariant algebraic Kasparov $K$-theory spectra of $k$-algebras. These are shown to be homotopy invariant, excisive in each variable $K$-theories. We prove that the spectra represent universal unstable, Morita stable and stable bivariant homology theories respectively.
In 1981 W. Fulton and R. MacPherson introduced the notion of bivariant theory (BT), which is a sophisticated unification of covariant theories and contravariant theories. This is for the study of singular spaces. In 2001 M. Levine and F. Morel introduced the notion of algebraic cobordism, which is a universal oriented Borel-Moore functor with products (OBMF) of geometric type, in an attempt to understand better V. Voevodsky's (higher) algebraic cobordism. In this paper we introduce a notion of oriented bivariant theory (OBT), a special case of which is nothing but the oriented Borel-Moore func…
The notion of (symmetric) coloured operad or "multicategory" can be obtained from the notion of commutative algebra through a certain general process which we call "theorization" (where our term comes from an analogy with William Lawvere's notion of algebraic theory). By exploiting the inductivity in the structure of higher associativity, we obtain the notion of "$n$-theory" for every integer $n\ge 0$, which inductively "theorizes" $n$ times, the notion of commutative algebra. As a result, (coloured) morphism between $n$-theories is a "graded" and "enriched" generalization of ($n-1$)-theory. T…