We look at strict $n$-groupoids and show that if $\Re$ is any realization functor from the category of strict $n$-groupoids to the category of spaces satisfying a minimal property of compatibility with homotopy groups, then there is no strict $n$-groupoid $G$ such that $\Re (G)$ is the $n$-type of $S^2$ (for $n\geq 3$). At the end we speculate on how one might fix this problem by introducing a notion of ``snucategory'', a strictly associative $n$-category with only weak units.
We propose a notion of 1-homotopy for generalized maps. This notion generalizes those of natural transformation and ordinary homotopy for functors. The 1-homotopy type of a Lie groupoid is shown to be invariant under Morita equivalence. As an application we consider orbifolds as groupoids and study the notion of orbifold 1-homotopy type induced by a 1-homotopy between presentations of the orbifold maps.
We prove that any homotopy type can be recovered canonically from its associated weak omega-groupoid. This implies that the homotopy category of CW-complexes can be embedded in the homotopy category of Batanin's weak higher groupoids.
The authors have used generalised Galois Theory to construct a homotopy double groupoid of a surjective fibration of Kan simplicial sets. Here we apply this to construct a new homotopy double groupoid of a map of spaces, which includes constructions by others of a 2-groupoid, cat^1-group or crossed module. An advantage of our construction is that the double groupoid can give an algebraic model of a foliated bundle.
We show that the category of presheaves of simplicial groupoids on a site $\mathcal{C}$ is a right proper simplicial model category. We define $G$-torsor of presheaf of 2-groupoids $G$, presheaf of simplicial groups $G$ and presheaf of simplicial groupoids $G$ on a site $\mathcal{C}$ and classify $G$-torsors by the homotopy classes $[\ast, \bar{W}G]$.
This work contributes to clarifying several relationships between certain higher categorical structures and the homotopy types of their classifying spaces. Double categories (Ehresmann, 1963) have well-understood geometric realizations, and here we deal with homotopy types represented by double groupoids satisfying a natural `filling condition'. Any such double groupoid characteristically has associated to it `homotopy groups', which are defined using only its algebraic structure. Thus arises the notion of `weak equivalence' between such double groupoids, and a corresponding `homotopy category…
We define a notion of groupoidal 2-quasi-categories and show that they are the fibrant objects of a model structure on the category of $Θ_2$-sets. We show that this model category is Quillen equivalent to the Kan-Quillen model category of simplicial sets and that 2-truncated groupoidal 2-quasi-categories are models for homotopy 2-types.
It is shown that the category of presheaves of simplicial groupoids and the category of presheaves of 2-groupoids have Quillen closed model structures. Furthermore, their homotopy categories are equivalent to the homotopy categories of simplicial presheaves and homotopy 2-types, respectively.
The purpose of this text is the study of the class of homotopy types which are modelized by strict \infty-groupoids. We show that the homotopy category of simply connected \infty-groupoids is equivalent to the derived category in homological degree greater or equal to 2 of abelian groups. We deduce that the simply connected homotopy types modelized by strict \infty-groupoids are precisely the products of Eilenberg-Mac Lane spaces. We also briefly study 3-categories with weak inverses. We finish by two questions about the problem suggested by the title of this text.
We present a slight variation on a notion of weak \infty-groupoid introduced by Grothendieck in Pursuing Stacks and we study the homotopy theory of these \infty-groupoids. We prove that the obvious definition for homotopy groups of Grothendieck \infty-groupoids does not depend on any choice. This allows us to give equivalent characterizations of weak equivalences of Grothendieck \infty-groupoids, generalizing a well-known result for strict \infty-groupoids. On the other hand, given a model category M in which every object is fibrant, we construct, following Grothendieck, a fundamental \infty-g…
We use the n-globe with its skeletal filtration to define the fundamental globular omega--groupoid of a filtered space; the proofs use an analogous fundamental cubical omega--groupoid due to the author and Philip Higgins. This method also relates the construction to the fundamental crossed complex of a filtered space, and this relation allows the proof that the crossed complex associated to the free globular omega-groupoid on one element of dimension n is the fundamental crossed complex of the n-globe.
We outline the main features of the definitions and applications of crossed complexes and cubical $ω$-groupoids with connections. These give forms of higher homotopy groupoids, and new views of basic algebraic topology and the cohomology of groups, with the ability to obtain some non commutative results and compute some homotopy types.
This paper is the second in a series exploring the properties of a functor which assigns a homotopy double groupoid with connections to a Hausdorff space. We show that this functor satisfies a version of the van Kampen theorem, and so is a suitable tool for nonabelian, 2-dimensional, local-to-global problems. The methods are analogous to those developed by Brown and Higgins for similar theorems for other higher homotopy groupoids. An integral part of the proof is a detailed discussion of commutative cubes in a double category with connections, and a proof of the key result that any composition…
In this paper, I introduce weak representations of a Lie groupoid $G$. I also show that there is an equivalence of categories between the categories of 2-term representations up to homotopy and weak representations of $G$. Furthermore, I show that any VB-groupoid is isomorphic to an action groupoid associated to a weak representation on its kernel groupoid; this relationship defines an equivalence of categories between the categories of weak representations of $G$ and the category of VB-groupoids over $G$.
We show that there exists a canonical functor from the category of strict \infty-groupoids to the category of Grothendieck \infty-groupoids and that this functor is fully faithful. As a main ingredient, we prove that free strict \infty-groupoids on a globular pasting scheme are weakly contractible.
We introduce and study a notion of cylinder coherator similar to the notion of Grothendieck coherator which define more flexible notion of weak infinity groupoids. We show that each such cylinder coherator produces a combinatorial semi-model category of weak infinity groupoids, whose objects are all fibrant and which is in a precise sense "freely generated by an object". We show that all those semi model categories are Quillen equivalent together and Quillen to the model category of spaces. A general procedure is given to produce such coherator, and several explicit examples are presented: one…
We propose a new homotopy invariant for Lie groupoids which generalizes the classical Lusternik-Schnirelmann category for topological spaces. We use a bicategorical approach to develop a notion of contraction in this context. We propose a notion of homotopy between generalized maps given by the 2-arrows in a certain bicategory of fractions. This notion is invariant under Morita equivalence. Thus, when the groupoid defines an orbifold, we have a well defined LS-category for orbifolds. We prove an orbifold version of the classical Lusternik-Schnirelmann theorem for critical points.
This paper gives an introduction to the homotopy theory of quasi-categories. Weak equivalences between quasi-categories are characterized as maps which induce equivalences on a naturally defined system of groupoids. These groupoids effectively replace higher homotopy groups in quasi-category homotopy theory.
We prove that the folk model structure on strict $\infty$-categories transfers to the category of strict $\infty$-groupoids (and more generally to the category of strict $(\infty, n)$-categories), and that the resulting model structure on strict $\infty$-groupoids coincides with the one defined by Brown and Golasinski via crossed complexes.
We show that if the canonical left semi-model structure on the category of Grothendieck $n$-groupoids exists, then it satisfies the homotopy hypothesis, i.e. the associated $(\infty,1)$-category is equivalent to that of homotopy $n$-types, thus generalizing a result of the first named author. As a corollary of the second named author's proof of the existence of the canonical left semi-model structure for Grothendieck 3-groupoids, we obtain a proof of the homotopy hypothesis for Grothendieck 3-groupoids.
Lie $\infty$-groupoids are simplicial Banach manifolds that satisfy an analog of the Kan condition for simplicial sets. An explicit construction of Henriques produces certain Lie $\infty$-groupoids called `Lie $\infty$-groups' by integrating finite type Lie $n$-algebras. In order to study the compatibility between this integration procedure and the homotopy theory of Lie $n$-algebras introduced in the companion paper arXiv:1809.05999, we present a homotopy theory for Lie $\infty$-groupoids. Unlike Kan simplicial sets and the higher geometric groupoids of Behrend and Getzler, Lie $\infty$-group…
In previous work, we showed that there are appropriate model category structures on the category of simplicial categories and on the category of Segal precategories, and that they are Quillen equivalent to one another and to Rezk's complete Segal space model structure on the category of simplicial spaces. Here, we show that these results still hold if we instead use groupoid or "invertible" cases. Namely, we show that model structures on the categories of simplicial groupoids, Segal pregroupoids, and invertible simplicial spaces are all Quillen equivalent to one another and to the standard mod…
The fundamental bigroupoid of a topological space is one way of capturing its homotopy 2-type. When the space is semilocally 2-connected, one can lift the construction to a bigroupoid internal to the category of topological spaces, as Brown and Danesh-Naruie lifted the fundamental groupoid to a topological groupoid. For locally relatively contractible spaces the resulting topological bigroupoid is locally trivial in a way analogous to the case of the topologised fundamental groupoid.
An n-truncated model structure on simplicial (pre-)sheaves is described having as weak equivalences maps that induce isomorphisms on certain homotopy sheaves only up to degree n. Starting from one of Jardine's intermediate model structures we construct such an n-type model structure via Bousfield-Friedlander localization and exhibit useful generating sets of trivial cofibrations. Injectively fibrant objects in these categories are called n-hyperstacks. The whole setup can consequently be viewed as a description of the homotopy theory of higher hyperstacks. More importantly, we construct analog…
In order to deduce the internal version of the Brown exact sequence from the internal version of the Gabriel-Zisman exact sequence, we characterize fibrations and $\ast$-fibrations in the 2-category of internal groupoids in terms of the comparison functor from certain pullbacks to the corresponding strong homotopy pullbacks. A similar analysis in the category of arrows allows us to give a characterization of protomodular categories using strong homotopy kernels.
Homotopy 3-types can be modelled algebraically by Tamsamani's weak 3-groupoids as well as, in the path-connected case, by cat^2-groups. This paper gives a comparison between the two models in the path-connected case. This leads to two different semistrict algebraic models of connected 3-types using the Tamsamani's model. Both are then related to Gray groupoids.
Homotopy Type Theory may be seen as an internal language for the $\infty$-category of weak $\infty$-groupoids which in particular models the univalence axiom. Voevodsky proposes this language for weak $\infty$-groupoids as a new foundation for mathematics called the Univalent Foundations of Mathematics. It includes the sets as weak $\infty$-groupoids with contractible connected components, and thereby it includes (much of) the traditional set theoretical foundations as a special case. We thus wonder whether those `discrete' groupoids do in fact form a (predicative) topos. More generally, homot…
In the first part of this paper we show that path categories are enriched over groupoids, in a way that is compatible with a suitable 2-category of path categories. In the second part we introduce a new notion of homotopy exponential and homotopy Pi-type for path categories, the strong homotopy exponential and the strong homotopy Pi-type. We prove some of their basic properties, along with two important technical propositions. The results in the second part of this paper are mostly obtained using the groupoid enrichment of path categories established in the first part.
We prove that symmetric monoidal weak n-groupoids in the Tamsamani model provide a model for stable n-types. Moreover, we recover the classical statement that Picard categories model stable 1-types.
The aim of this article is to explain a philosophy for applying higher dimensional Seifert-van Kampen Theorems, and how the use of groupoids and strict higher groupoids resolves some foundational anomalies in algebraic topology at the border between homology and homotopy. We explain some applications to filtered spaces, and special cases of them, while a sequel will show the relevance to n-cubes of pointed spaces.
By homotopy linear algebra we mean the study of linear functors between slices of the $\infty$-category of $\infty$-groupoids, subject to certain finiteness conditions. After some standard definitions and results, we assemble said slices into $\infty$-categories to model the duality between vector spaces and profinite-dimensional vector spaces, and set up a global notion of homotopy cardinality à la Baez-Hoffnung-Walker compatible with this duality. We needed these results to support our work on incidence algebras and Möbius inversion over $\infty$-groupoids; we hope that they can also be of i…
We describe various equivalent ways of associating to an orbifold, or more generally a higher étale differentiable stack, a weak homotopy type. Some of these ways extend to arbitrary higher stacks on the site of smooth manifolds, and we show that for a differentiable stack X arising from a Lie groupoid G, the weak homotopy type of X agrees with that of BG. Using this machinery, we are able to find new presentations for the weak homotopy type of certain classifying spaces. In particular, we give a new presentation for the Borel construction of an almost free action of a Lie group G on a smooth …
In this paper we construct a symmetric monoidal closed model category of coherently commutative Picard groupoids. We construct another model category structure on the category of (small) permutative categories whose fibrant objects are (permutative) Picard groupoids. The main result is that the Segal's nerve functor induces a Quillen equivalence between the two aforementioned model categories. Our main result implies the classical result that Picard groupoids model stable homotopy one-types.
This paper presents a novel connection between homotopical algebra and mathematical logic. It is shown that a form of intensional type theory is valid in any Quillen model category, generalizing the Hofmann-Streicher groupoid model of Martin-Loef type theory.
A crossed module is (A,H,d,\la) where d:A\to H is a homomorphism of groups and H acts on A, with conditions leading to a groupoid A\lcross H{\to\atop \to}H as an example of a strict 2-group. We give the corresponding notion of a quantum 2-group where we replace the above by Hopf algebras and introduce a new version of quantum groupoid. The work also suggests a natural notion of braided crossed module where A a braided-Hopf algebra in the braided category Z({}_H\CM) of crossed H-modules, although without the full groupoid picture in this more general case.
The notes were prepared for a series of talks that I gave in Hagen in late June and early July 2003, and, with some changes, in the University of La Laguña, the Canary Islands, in September, 2003. They aim (i) to revisit some oldish material on abstract homotopy and simplicial ly enriched categories, that seems to be being used in today's resurgence of interest in the area and to try to view it in a new light, or perhaps from new directions; (ii) to introduce Segal categories and various other tools used by the Nice-Toulouse group of abstract homotopy theorists and link them into some of the o…
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…
By a ring groupoid we mean an animated ring whose i-th homotopy groups are zero for all i>1. In this expository note we give an elementary treatment of the (2,1)-category of ring groupoids (i.e., without referring to general animated rings and without using n-categories for n>2). The note is motivated by the fact that ring stacks play a central role in the Bhatt-Lurie approach to prismatic cohomology.
It is well-known that for certain local connectivity assumptions the fundamental groupoid of a topological space can be equipped with a topology making it a topological groupoid. In other words, the fundamental groupoid functor can be lifted through the forgetful functor from topological groupoids to groupoids. This article shows that for a map $Y \to X$ with certain relative local connectivity assumptions, the fibrewise fundamental groupoid can also be lifted to a topological groupoid over the space $X$. This allows the construction of a simply-connected covering space in the setting of fibre…
We build a concrete and natural model for the strict 2-category of orbifolds. In particular we prove that if one localizes the 2-category of proper etale Lie groupoids at a class of 1-arrows that we call "covers", then the strict 2-category structure drops down to the localization. In our construction the spaces of 1- and 2-arrows admit natural topologies, the space of morphisms (1-arrows) between two orbifolds is naturally a groupoid and the symmetries of an orbifold form a strict 2-group.
We construct a "diagonal" cofibrantly generated model structre on the category of simplicial objects in the category of topological categories sCat_{Top}, which is the category of diagrams [Δ^{op}, Cat_{Top}]. Moreover, we prove that the diagonal model structures is left proper and cellular. We also prove that the category of \infty-groupoids (the full subcategory of topological categories) has a cofibrantly generated model structure and is Quillen equivalent to the model category of simplicial sets, which proves the Grothendieck's homotopy hypothesis.
This is a sequel to a previous paper, developing an intrinsic, combinatorial homotopy theory for simplicial complexes; the latter form the cartesian closed subcategory of 'simple presheaves' in !Smp, the topos of symmetric simplicial sets, or presheaves on the category of finite, positive cardinals. We show here how this homotopy theory can be extended to the topos itself, !Smp. As a crucial advantage, the fundamental groupoid functor !Smp --> Gpd is left adjoint to a natural functor Gpd --> !Smp, the symmetric nerve of a groupoid, and preserves all colimits - a strong van Kampen property. Sim…
Informally, an orbifold is a smooth space whose points may have finitely many internal symmetries. Formally, however, the notion of orbifold has been presented in a number of different guises -- from Satake's V-manifolds to Moerdijk and Pronk's proper étale groupoids -- which do not on their face resemble the informal definition. The reason for this divergence between formalism and intuition is that the points of spaces cannot have internal symmetries in traditional, set-level foundations. The extra data of these symmetries must be carried around and accounted for throughout the theory. More d…
Affine structures on a Lie groupoid, including affine $k$-vector fields, $k$-forms and $(p,q)$-tensors are studied. We show that the space of affine structures is a 2-vector space over the space of multiplicative structures. Moreover, the space of affine multivector fields has a natural graded strict Lie 2-algebra structure and affine (1,1)-tensors constitute a strict monoidal category. Such higher structures can be seen as the categorification of multiplicative structures on a Lie groupoid.
For each n\geq 1 we introduce two new Segal-type models of n-types of topological spaces: weakly globular n-fold groupoids, and a lax version of these. We show that any n-type can be represented up to homotopy by such models via an explicit algebraic fundamental n-fold groupoid functor. We compare these models to Tamsamani's weak n-groupoids, and extract from them a model for (k-1)connected n-types
We investigate canonical factorizations of ordered functors of ordered groupoids through star-surjective functors. Our main construction is a quotient ordered groupoid, depending on an ordered version of the notion of normal subgroupoid, that results is the factorization of an ordered functor as a star-surjective functor followed by a star-injective functor. Any star-injective functor possesses a universal factorization through a covering, by Ehresmann's Maximum Enlargement Theorem. We also show that any ordered functor has a canonical factorization through a functor with the ordered homotopy …
This paper illustrates the themes of the title in terms of: van Kampen type theorems for the fundamental groupoid; holonomy and monodromy groupoids; and higher homotopy groupoids. Interaction with work of the writer is explored.
