a Department of Mathematics, 100 Mathematics Building 231 West 18th, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1174, USA b Universität Osnabrück, 49069 Osnabrück, Germany
Abstract:
We develop a notion of an n-fold monoidal category and show that it corresponds in a precise way to the notion of an n-fold loop space. Specifically, the group completion of the nerve of such a category is an n-fold loop space, and free n-fold monoidal categories give rise to a finite simplicial operad of the same homotopy type as the classical little cubes operad used to parametrize the higher H-space structure of an n-fold loop space. We also show directly that this operad has the same homotopy type as the n-th Smith filtration of the Barratt-Eccles operad and the n-th filtration of Berger's complete graph operad. Moreover, this operad contains an equivalent preoperad which gives rise to Milgram's small model for when n=2 and is very closely related to Milgram's model of for n>2.