The Eckmann-Hilton argument and higher operads

The classical Eckmann-Hilton argument shows that two monoid structures on a set, such that one is a homomorphism for the other, coincide and, moreover, the resulting monoid is commutative. This argument immediately gives a proof of the commutativity of the higher homotopy groups. A reformulation of this argument in the language of higher categories is: suppose we have a one object, one arrow 2-category, then its Hom-set is a commutative monoid. A similar argument due to A. Joyal and R. Street shows that a one object, one arrow tricategory is ‘the same’ as a braided monoidal category.In this paper we begin to investigate how one can extend this argument to arbitrary dimension. We provide a simple categorical scheme which allows us to formalise the Eckmann-Hilton type argument in terms of the calculation of left Kan extensions in an appropriate 2-category. Then we apply this scheme to the case of n-operads in the author's sense and classical symmetric operads. We demonstrate that there exists a functor of symmetrisation Symn from a certain subcategory of n-operads to the category of symmetric operads such that the category of one object, one arrow, … , one (n−1)-arrow algebras of A is isomorphic to the category of algebras of Symn(A). Under some mild conditions, we present an explicit formula for Symn(A) which involves taking the colimit over a remarkable categorical symmetric operad.We will consider some applications of the methods developed to the theory of n-fold loop spaces in the second paper of this series.     

How strict is strictification?

The subject of this paper is the higher structure of the strictification adjunction, which relates the two fundamental bases of three-dimensional category theory: the Gray-category of 2-categories and the tricategory of bicategories. We show that – far from requiring the full weakness provided by the definitions of tricategory theory – this adjunction can be strictly enriched over the symmetric closed multicategory of bicategories defined by Verity. Moreover, we show that this adjunction underlies an adjunction of bicategory-enriched symmetric multicategories. An appendix introduces the symmetric closed multicategory of pseudo double categories, into which Verity's symmetric multicategory of bicategories embeds fully.     

Monads in double categories

We extend the basic concepts of Street’s formal theory of monads from the setting of 2-categories to that of double categories. In particular, we introduce the double category of monads in a double category C and define what it means for a double category to admit the construction of free monads. Our main theorem shows that, under some mild conditions, a double category that is a framed bicategory admits the construction of free monads if its horizontal 2-category does. We apply this result to obtain double adjunctions which extend the adjunction between graphs and categories and the adjunction between polynomial endofunctors and polynomial monads.     

The countable Telescope Conjecture for module categories

By the Telescope Conjecture for Module Categories, we mean the following claim: “Let R be any ring and (A,B) be a hereditary cotorsion pair in Mod-R with A and B closed under direct limits. Then (A,B) is of finite type.”We prove a modification of this conjecture with the word ‘finite’ replaced by ‘countable.’ We show that a hereditary cotorsion pair (A,B) of modules over an arbitrary ring R is generated by a set of strongly countably presented modules provided that B is closed under unions of well-ordered chains. We also characterize the modules in B and the countably presented modules in A in terms of morphisms between finitely presented modules, and show that (A,B) is cogenerated by a single pure-injective module provided that A is closed under direct limits. Then we move our attention to strong analogies between cotorsion pairs in module categories and localizing pairs in compactly generated triangulated categories.     

Decomposition behavior in aggregated data sets

One way to aggregate data is to combine several sets with the same structure, but no overlap in their ranges of values — for instance, aggregating prices before and after a period of hyperinflation. Looking at nonparametric tests on three ‘items’, we compute the relation of the decomposition of the underlying voting profiles of such aggregated sets to those for the original data. We focus on the Basic components, including examples of ‘pure Basic’ sets, computed using Sage. This yields several interesting results about consistency of nonparametric tests with respect to this kind of aggregation, and suggests types of non-uniformity which are not detected by standard tests.     

Analytic continuation of the resolvent of the Laplacian on symmetric spaces of noncompact type

Let (M,g) be a globally symmetric space of noncompact type, of arbitrary rank, and Δ its Laplacian. We introduce a new method to analyze Δ and the resolvent (Δ-σ)^-1; this has origins in quantum N-body scattering, but is independent of the ‘classical’ theory of spherical functions, and is analytically much more robust. We expect that, suitably modified, it will generalize to locally symmetric spaces of arbitrary rank. As an illustration of this method, we prove the existence of a meromorphic continuation of the resolvent across the continuous spectrum to a Riemann surface multiply covering the plane. We also show how this continuation may be deduced using the theory of spherical functions. In summary, this paper establishes a long-suspected connection between the analysis on symmetric spaces and N-body scattering.     

Symmetrisation of n-operads and compactification of real configuration spaces

It is well known that the forgetful functor from symmetric operads to nonsymmetric operads has a left adjoint Sym₁ given by product with the symmetric group operad. It is also well known that this functor does not affect the category of algebras of the operad. From the point of view of the author's theory of higher operads, the nonsymmetric operads are 1-operads and Sym₁ is the first term of the infinite series of left adjoint functors Symn, called symmetrisation functors, from n-operads to symmetric operads with the property that the category of one object, one arrow, …, one (n−1)-arrow algebras of an n-operad A is isomorphic to the category of algebras of Symn(A).In this paper we consider some geometrical and homotopical aspects of the symmetrisation of n-operads. We follow Getzler and Jones and consider their decomposition of the Fulton-Macpherson operad of compactified real configuration spaces. We construct an n-operadic counterpart of this compactification which we call the Getzler-Jones operad. We study the properties of Getzler-Jones operad and find that it is contractible and cofibrant in an appropriate model category. The symmetrisation of the Getzler-Jones operad turns out to be exactly the operad of Fulton and Macpherson. These results should be considered as an extension of Stasheff's theory of 1-fold loop spaces to n-fold loop spaces n?2. We also show that a space X with an action of a contractible n-operad has a natural structure of an algebra over an operad weakly equivalent to the little n-disks operad. A similar result holds for chain operads. These results generalise the classical Eckman-Hilton argument to arbitrary dimension.Finally, we apply the techniques to the Swiss-Cheese type operads introduced by Voronov and prove analogous results in this case.     

2-Groups, trialgebras and their Hopf categories of representations

A strict 2-group is a 2-category with one object in which all morphisms and all 2-morphisms have inverses. 2-Groups have been studied in the context of homotopy theory, higher gauge theory and Topological Quantum Field Theory (TQFT). In the present article, we develop the notions of trialgebra and cotrialgebra, generalizations of Hopf algebras with two multiplications and one comultiplication or vice versa, and the notion of Hopf categories, generalizations of monoidal categories with an additional functorial comultiplication. We show that each strict 2-group has a ‘group algebra’ which is a cocommutative trialgebra, and that each strict finite 2-group has a ‘function algebra’ which is a commutative cotrialgebra. Each such commutative cotrialgebra gives rise to a symmetric Hopf category of corepresentations. In the semisimple case, this Hopf category is a 2-vector space according to Kapranov and Voevodsky. We also show that strict compact topological 2-groups are characterized by their C^*-cotrialgebras of ‘complex-valued functions’, generalizing the Gel'fand representation, and that commutative cotrialgebras are characterized by their symmetric Hopf categories of corepresentations, generalizing Tannaka-Kre?ˇn reconstruction. Technically, all these results are obtained using ideas from functorial semantics, by studying models of the essentially algebraic theory of categories in various base categories of familiar algebraic structures and the functors that describe the relationships between them.     

Diophantine approximation and badly approximable sets

Let (X,d) be a metric space and (Ω,d) a compact subspace of X which supports a non-atomic finite measure m. We consider ‘natural’ classes of badly approximable subsets of Ω. Loosely speaking, these consist of points in Ω which ‘stay clear’ of some given set of points in X. The classical set Bad of ‘badly approximable’ numbers in the theory of Diophantine approximation falls within our framework as do the sets Bad(i,j) of simultaneously badly approximable numbers. Under various natural conditions we prove that the badly approximable subsets of Ω have full Hausdorff dimension. Applications of our general framework include those from number theory (classical, complex, p-adic and formal power series) and dynamical systems (iterated function schemes, rational maps and Kleinian groups).     

Uncomputability and undecidability in economic theory

Economic theory, game theory and mathematical statistics have all increasingly become algorithmic sciences. Computable Economics, Algorithmic Game Theory[Noam Nisan, Tim Roiughgarden, Éva Tardos, Vijay V. Vazirani (Eds.), Algorithmic Game Theory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007] and Algorithmic Statistics[Péter Gács, John T. Tromp, Paul M.B. Vitányi, Algorithmic statistics, IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 47 (6) (2001) 2443-2463] are frontier research subjects. All of them, each in its own way, are underpinned by (classical) recursion theory - and its applied branches, say computational complexity theory or algorithmic information theory - and, occasionally, proof theory. These research paradigms have posed new mathematical and metamathematical questions and, inadvertently, undermined the traditional mathematical foundations of economic theory. A concise, but partial, pathway into these new frontiers is the subject matter of this paper. Interpreting the core of mathematical economic theory to be defined by General Equilibrium Theory and Game Theory, a general - but concise - analysis of the computable and decidable content of the implications of these two areas are discussed. Issues at the frontiers of macroeconomics, now dominated by Recursive Macroeconomic Theory (The qualification ‘recursive’ here has nothing to do with ‘recursion theory’. Instead, this is a reference to the mathematical formalizations of the rational economic agent’s intertemporal optimization problems, in terms of Markov Decision Processes, (Kalman) Filtering and Dynamic Programming, where a kind of ‘recursion’ is invoked in the solution methods. The metaphor of the rational economic agent as a ‘signal processor’ underpins the recursive macroeconomic paradigm.), are also tackled, albeit ultra briefly. The point of view adopted is that of classical recursion theory and varieties of constructive mathematics.     

Average value problems in ordinary differential equations

Using Schauder's fixed point theorem, with the help of an integral representation in ‘Sharp conditions for weighted 1-dimensional Poincaré inequalities’, Indiana Univ. Math. J., 49 (2000) 143-175, by Chua and Wheeden, we obtain existence and uniqueness theorems and ‘continuous dependence of average condition’ for average value problem:

y^′=F(x,y),     

Generalization of Harish-Chandra's basic theorem for Riemannian symmetric spaces of non-compact type

A basic exact sequence by Harish-Chandra related to the invariant differential operators on a Riemannian symmetric space G/K is generalized for each K-type in a certain class which we call ‘single-petaled.’ The argument also includes a further generalization of Broer's generalization of the Chevalley restriction theorem.     

An alternative approach to unitoidness

In a recent paper [C.R. Johnson, S. Furtado, A generalization of Sylvester’s law of inertia, Linear Algebra Appl. 338 (2001) 287-290], Sylvester’s law of inertia is generalized to any matrix that is ∗-congruent to a diagonal matrix. Such a matrix is called unitoid. In the present paper, an alternative approach to the subject of unitoidness is offered. Specifically, Sylvester’s law of inertia states that a Hermitian n × n matrix of rank r with inertia (p, q, n − r) is ∗-congruent to the direct sum

eⁱ⁰I_p⊕e^iπI_q⊕0I_n-r.     

On the cobordism and commutative monoid with cancellation approaches to conformal field theory

In the late 1980s, Graeme Segal axiomatized conformal field theory in terms of a cobordism category. In that same preprint he outlined a more symmetric trace approach, which was recently rigorized in terms of pseudo algebras over a 2-theory. In this paper, we treat the cobordism approach in the pseudo algebra context. We introduce a new algebraic structure on a bicategory, called a pseudo 2-algebra over a theory, as a means of comparison for the two approaches. The main result states that the 2-category of pseudo algebras over a fixed 2-theory is biequivalent to the 2-category of pseudo 2-algebras over a fixed theory in certain situations.     

Cyclotomic Solomon algebras

This paper introduces an analogue of the Solomon descent algebra for the complex reflection groups of type G(r,1,n). As with the Solomon descent algebra, our algebra has a basis given by sums of ‘distinguished’ coset representatives for certain ‘reflection subgroups.’ We explicitly describe the structure constants with respect to this basis and show that they are polynomials in r. This allows us to define a deformation, or q-analogue, of these algebras which depends on a parameter q. We determine the irreducible representations of all of these algebras and give a basis for their radicals. Finally, we show that the direct sum of cyclotomic Solomon algebras is canonically isomorphic to a concatenation Hopf algebra.     

A dichotomy for the convex spaces of probability measures

We show that every nonempty compact and convex space M of probability Radon measures either contains a measure which has ‘small’ local character in M or else M contains a measure of ‘large’ Maharam type. Such a dichotomy is related to several results on Radon measures on compact spaces and to some properties of Banach spaces of continuous functions.