Stable Homotopy Monomorphisms

It is well known that the concept of monomorphism in a category can be defined using an appropriate pullback diagram. In the homotopy category of TOP pullbacks do not generally exist. This motivated Michael Mather to introduce another notion of homotopy pullback which does exist. The aim of this paper is to investigate the modified notion of homotopy monomorphism obtained by applying the pullback characterization using Mather's homotopy pullback. The main result of Section 1 shows that these modified homotopy monomorphisms are exactly those homotopy monomorphisms (in the usual sense) which are homotopy pullback stable, hence the terminology “stable” homotopy monomorphism. We also link these stable homotopy monomorphisms to monomorphisms and products in the track homotopy category over a fixed space. In Section 2 we answer the question: when is a (weak) fibration also a stable homotopy monomorphism? In the final section it is shown that the class of (weak) fibrations with this additional property coincides with the class of “double” (weak) fibrations. The double (weak) covering homotopy property being introduced here is a stronger version of the (W) CHP in which the final maps of the homotopies involved play the same role as the initial maps.     

Stable model categories are categories of modules

A stable model category is a setting for homotopy theory where the suspension functor is invertible. The prototypical examples are the category of spectra in the sense of stable homotopy theory and the category of unbounded chain complexes of modules over a ring. In this paper we develop methods for deciding when two stable model categories represent ‘the same homotopy theory’. We show that stable model categories with a single compact generator are equivalent to modules over a ring spectrum. More generally stable model categories with a set of generators are characterized as modules over a ‘ring spectrum with several objects’, i.e., as spectrum valued diagram categories. We also prove a Morita theorem which shows how equivalences between module categories over ring spectra can be realized by smashing with a pair of bimodules. Finally, we characterize stable model categories which represent the derived category of a ring. This is a slight generalization of Rickard's work on derived equivalent rings. We also include a proof of the model category equivalence of modules over the Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectrum HR and (unbounded) chain complexes of R-modules for a ring R.     

Exact categories,big Cohen-Macaulay modules and finite representation type

One of the first remarkable results in the representation theory of artin algebras, due to Auslander and Ringel-Tachikawa, is the characterisation of when an artin algebra is representation-finite. In this paper, we investigate aspects of representation-finiteness in the general context of exact categories in the sense of Quillen. In this framework, we introduce “big objects” and prove an Auslander-type “splitting-big-objects” theorem. Our approach generalises and unifies the known results from the literature. As a further application of our methods, we extend the theorems of Auslander and Ringel-Tachikawa to arbitrary dimension, i.e. we characterise when a Cohen-Macaulay order over a complete regular local ring is of finite representation type.     

Deformation theory of objects in homotopy and derived categories I: General theory

This is the first paper in a series. We develop a general deformation theory of objects in homotopy and derived categories of DG categories. Namely, for a DG module E over a DG category we define four deformation functors Defh(E), coDefh(E), Def(E), coDef(E). The first two functors describe the deformations (and co-deformations) of E in the homotopy category, and the last two - in the derived category. We study their properties and relations. These functors are defined on the category of artinian (not necessarily commutative) DG algebras.     

On categories of algebras equivalent to a quasivariety

In a recent paper, B. Banaschewski proved that anySP-class of algebras which is category equivalent to a variety (over a possibly different finitary similarity type) is itself a variety. Here we prove the analogous statement obtained by replacing “variety” with “quasivariety”. We also present examples which detail some of the difficulties arising when one tries to strengthen the theorem in various ways.     

Deformation theory of objects in homotopy and derived categories III: Abelian categories

This is the third paper in a series. In Part I we developed a deformation theory of objects in homotopy and derived categories of DG categories. Here we show how this theory can be used to study deformations of objects in homotopy and derived categories of abelian categories. Then we consider examples from (noncommutative) algebraic geometry. In particular, we study noncommutative Grassmanians that are true noncommutative moduli spaces of structure sheaves of projective subspaces in projective spaces.     

Curved Koszul duality theory

We extend the bar–cobar adjunction to operads and properads, not necessarily augmented. Due to the default of augmentation, the objects of the dual category are endowed with a curvature. As usual, the bar–cobar construction gives a cofibrant resolution for any properad. Applied to the properad encoding unital and counital Frobenius algebras, notion which appears in 2d-TQFT, it defines the associated notion up to homotopy. We further define a curved Koszul duality theory for operads or properads presented with quadratic, linear and constant relations. This provides smaller resolutions. We apply this new theory to study the homotopy theory and the cohomology theory of unital associative algebras.     

Exact Sequences and Closed Model Categories

For every closed model category with zero object, Quillen gave the construction of Eckman-Hilton and Puppe sequences. In this paper, we remove the hypothesis of the existence of zero object and construct (using the category over the initial object or the category under the final object) these sequences for unpointed model categories. We illustrate the power of this result in abstract homotopy theory given some interesting applications to group cohomology and exterior homotopy groups.     

Models for homotopy n-types in diagram categories

The classical Mac Lane-Whitehead equivalence showing that crossed modules of groups are algebraic models of connected homotopy 2-types has found a corresponding equivariant version by Moerdijk and Svensson ([22]). In this paper we show that this equivariant result has a higher-dimensional version which gives an equivalence between the homotopy category of diagrams of certain objects indexed by the orbit category of a group H and H-equivariant homotopy n-types for n1.Supported by DGICYT:PS90-0226     

Classifying spaces for braided monoidal categories and lax diagrams of bicategories

This work contributes to clarifying several relationships between certain higher categorical structures and the homotopy type of their classifying spaces. Bicategories (in particular monoidal categories) have well-understood simple geometric realizations, and we here deal with homotopy types represented by lax diagrams of bicategories, that is, lax functors to the tricategory of bicategories. In this paper, it is proven that, when a certain bicategorical Grothendieck construction is performed on a lax diagram of bicategories, then the classifying space of the resulting bicategory can be thought of as the homotopy colimit of the classifying spaces of the bicategories that arise from the initial input data given by the lax diagram. This result is applied to produce bicategories whose classifying space has a double loop space with the same homotopy type, up to group completion, as the underlying category of any given (non-necessarily strict) braided monoidal category. Specifically, it is proven that these double delooping spaces, for categories enriched with a braided monoidal structure, can be explicitly realized by means of certain genuine simplicial sets characteristically associated to any braided monoidal categories, which we refer to as their (Street's) geometric nerves.     

Invariants of Directed Spaces

Directed spaces are the objects of study within directed algebraic topology. They are characterised by spaces of directed paths associated to a source and a target, both elements of an underlying topological space. The algebraic topology of these path spaces and their connections are studied from a categorical perspective. In particular, we study the preorder category associated to a directed space and various “quotient” categories arising from algebraic topological functors. Furthermore, we propose and study a new notion of directed homotopy equivalence between directed spaces.      

Triple Brackets and Lax Morphism Categories

Various aspects of the traditional homotopy theory of topological spaces may be developed in an arbitrary 2-category C with zeros. In particular certain secondary composition operations called box brackets recently have been defined for C; these are similar to, but extend, the familiar Toda brackets in the topological case. In this paper we introduce further the notion of a suspension functor in C and explore the ramifications of relativizing the theory in terms of the associated lax morphism category of C, denoted mC. Four operations associated to a 3-box diagram are introduced and relations among them are clarified. The results and insights obtained, while by nature somewhat technical, yield effective and efficient techniques for computing many operations of Toda bracket type. We illustrate by recording some computations from the homotopy groups of spheres. Also the properties of a new operation, the 2-sided matrix Toda bracket, are explored.     

Harder-Narasimhan categories

Semistability and the Harder-Narasimhan filtration are important notions in algebraic and arithmetic geometry. Although these notions are associated to mathematical objects of quite different natures, their definition and the proofs of their existence are quite similar. We propose in this article a generalization of Quillen’s exact category and we discuss conditions on such categories under which one can define the notion of the Harder-Narasimhan filtrations and establish its functoriality.     

Several Constructions of Exact Sequences

The article presents a construction of a 5-term relative exact sequence in purely categorical terms and the Mayer–Vietoris sequence for weak -groupoids of R. Street. In the first half of the paper, it is shown that several well-known exact sequences can be obtained, using the Z-diagram described at the beginning of the article. There are number of categories that are close to the category of topological spaces in the sense of homotopy theory. The objects of such a category can be viewed as weak -groupoids in a very intuitive way. Therefore, the language of weak -groupoids seems to be very convenient to make explicit constructions in categories of this type. The article presents a combinatorial construction of the path space of a weak -groupoid and applies the machinery of Sec. 1 to obtain the long exact sequence of a homotopy fiber. The construction is quite natural and gives information on the structure of the relative terms. In the last section, the Mayer–Vietoris sequence of a fiber square of weak -groupoids is obtained under some conditions. Of course, this construction makes sense for topological spaces or for any category mentioned above. But the statement of the conditions is more natural in terms of weak -groupoids. This sequence generalizes the sequence of fibration, and in this case the conditions given in the article are equivalent to the homotopy lifting property. Bibliography: 6 titles.     

Homotopy theory of associative rings

A kind of unstable homotopy theory on the category of associative rings (without unit) is developed. There are the notions of fibrations, homotopy (in the sense of Karoubi), path spaces, Puppe sequences, etc. One introduces the notion of a quasi-isomorphism (or weak equivalence) for rings and shows that—similar to spaces—the derived category obtained by inverting the quasi-isomorphisms is naturally left triangulated. Also, homology theories on rings are studied. These must be homotopy invariant in the algebraic sense, meet the Mayer-Vietoris property and plus some minor natural axioms. To any functor X from rings to pointed simplicial sets a homology theory is associated in a natural way. If X=GL and fibrations are the GL-fibrations, one recovers Karoubi-Villamayor's functors KVi, i>0. If X is Quillen's K-theory functor and fibrations are the surjective homomorphisms, one recovers the (non-negative) homotopy K-theory in the sense of Weibel. Technical tools we use are the homotopy information for the category of simplicial functors on rings and the Bousfield localization theory for model categories. The machinery developed in the paper also allows to give another definition for the triangulated category kk constructed by Cortiñas and Thom [G. Cortiñas, A. Thom, Bivariant algebraic K-theory, preprint, math.KT/0603531]. The latter category is an algebraic analog for triangulated structures on operator algebras used in Kasparov's KK-theory.     

CATEGORICAL HOMOTOPY

We present a homotopy theory of small categories. In a work of this nature there is a need to give a theory which is clear and which shows the methods of work in this field. It is also necessary to prove theorems which place the theory within the general framework of homotopy, i.e. particularly to liaise with the homotopy of topological spaces and with abstract homotopy theories. Firstly we define the important notion of finite functor on which the theory is based. Next we introduce a type of fibred category fitting to the work on homotopy. After having studied the paths and loops of a category, we consider homotopy between functors. Finally, we demonstrate the possibility of obtaining homotopy groups before taking into consideration the relations between categorical and topological homotopy.     

Idempotent completion of pretriangulated categories

A pretriangulated category is an additive category with left and right triangulations such that these two triangulations are compatible. In this paper, we first show that the idempotent completion of a left triangulated category admits a unique structure of left triangulated category and dually this is true for a right triangulated category. We then prove that the idempotent completion of a pretriangulated category has a natural structure of pretriangulated category. As an application, we show that a torsion pair in a pretriangulated category extends uniquely to a torsion pair in the idempotent completion.