Locally anisotropic toposes

This paper continues the investigation of isotropy theory for toposes. We develop the theory of isotropy quotients of toposes, culminating in a structure theorem for a class of toposes we call locally anisotropic. The theory has a natural interpretation for inverse semigroups, which clarifies some aspects of how inverse semigroups and toposes are related.     

A note on the categorical van Kampen Theorem

In this note we show that for the canonical map X₁+X₂→X, from the topological sum of two subspaces X₁, X₂ of X into X, to be of effective descent it is sufficient to be hereditarily a quotient map. Further, making use of the Brown-Janelidze categorical van Kampen Theorem, this translates into a van Kampen-type result.     

Cocomplete toposes whose exact completions are toposes

Let E be a cocomplete topos. We show that if the exact completion of E is a topos then every indecomposable object in E is an atom. As a corollary we characterize the locally connected Grothendieck toposes whose exact completions are toposes. This result strengthens both the Lawvere-Schanuel characterization of Boolean presheaf toposes and Hofstra’s characterization of the locally connected Grothendieck toposes whose exact completion is a Grothendieck topos.We also show that for any topological space X, the exact completion of is a topos if and only if X is discrete. The corollary in this case characterizes the Grothendieck toposes with enough points whose exact completions are toposes.     

Elementary axioms for local maps of toposes

We present a complete elementary axiomatization of local maps of toposes.     

A characterization of the left exact categories whose exact completions are toposes

We characterize the categories with finite limits whose exact completions are toposes and discuss some examples and counter-examples.     

A van Kampen theorem for equivariant fundamental groupoids

The equivariant fundamental groupoid of a G-space X is a category which generalizes the fundamental groupoid of a space to the equivariant setting. In this paper, we prove a van Kampen theorem for these categories: the equivariant fundamental groupoid of X can be obtained as a pushout of the categories associated to two open G-subsets covering X. This is proved by interpreting the equivariant fundamental groupoid as a Grothendieck semidirect product construction, and combining general properties of this construction with the ordinary (non-equivariant) van Kampen theorem. We then illustrate applications of this theorem by showing that the equivariant fundamental groupoid of a G-CW complex only depends on the 2-skeleton and also by using the theorem to compute an example.     

A refinement of the Conway-Gordon theorems

In 1983, Conway-Gordon showed that for every spatial complete graph on 6 vertices, the sum of the linking numbers over all of the constituent 2-component links is congruent to 1 modulo 2, and for every spatial complete graph on 7 vertices, the sum of the Arf invariants over all of the Hamiltonian knots is also congruent to 1 modulo 2. In this article, we give integral lifts of the Conway-Gordon theorems above in terms of the square of the linking number and the second coefficient of the Conway polynomial. As applications, we give alternative topological proofs of theorems of Brown-Ramírez Alfonsín and Huh-Jeon for rectilinear spatial complete graphs which were proved by computational and combinatorial methods.     

Levels in the toposes of simplicial sets and cubical sets

The essential subtoposes of a fixed topos form a complete lattice, which gives rise to the notion of a level in a topos. In the familiar example of simplicial sets, levels coincide with dimensions and give rise to the usual notions of n-skeletal and n-coskeletal simplicial sets. In addition to the obvious ordering, the levels provide a stricter means of comparing the complexity of objects, which is determined by the answer to the following question posed by Bill Lawvere: when does n-skeletal imply k-coskeletal? This paper, which subsumes earlier unpublished work of some of the authors, answers this question for several toposes of interest to homotopy theory and higher category theory: simplicial sets, cubical sets, and reflexive globular sets. For the latter, n-skeletal implies (n+1)-coskeletal but for the other two examples the situation is considerably more complicated: n-skeletal implies (2n−1)-coskeletal for simplicial sets and 2n-coskeletal for cubical sets, but nothing stronger. In a discussion of further applications, we prove that n-skeletal cyclic sets are necessarily (2n+1)-coskeletal.     

Self-adjunctions and matrices

It is shown that the multiplicative monoids of Temperley-Lieb algebras are isomorphic to monoids of endomorphisms in categories where an endofunctor is adjoint to itself. Such a self-adjunction is found in a category whose arrows are matrices, and the functor adjoint to itself is based on the Kronecker product of matrices. This self-adjunction underlies the orthogonal group case of Brauer's representation of the Brauer centralizer algebras.     

Quantum groups and ribbon G-categories

For a group G, the notion of a ribbon G-category was introduced in Turaev (Homotopy field theory in dimension 3 and crossed group-categories, preprint, math. GT/0005291) with a view towards constructing 3-dimensional homotopy quantum field theories (HQFTs) with target K(G,1). We discuss here how to derive ribbon G-categories from a simple complex Lie algebra where G is the center of . Our construction is based on a study of representations of the quantum group at a root of unity ε. Under certain assumptions on ε, the resulting G-categories give rise to numerical invariants of pairs (a closed oriented 3-manifold M, an element of H¹(M;G)) and to 3-dimensional HQFTs.     

A disjoint disks property for 3-manifolds

We show that the map separation property (MSP), a concept due to H.W. Lambert and R.B. Sher, is an appropriate analogue of J.W. Cannon’s disjoint disks property (DDP) for the class $\text{C}$ of compact generalized 3-manifolds with zero-dimensional singular set, modulo the Poincaré conjecture. Our main result is that the Poincaré conjecture (in dimension three) is equivalent to the conjecture that every X?$\text{C}$ with the MSP is a topological 3-manifold.     

Embedding theorems for HNN extensions of inverse semigroups

A variant of an HNN extension of an inverse semigroup introduced by Gilbert [N.D. Gilbert, HNN extensions of inverse semigroups and groupoids, J. Algebra 272 (2004) 27-45] is defined provided that associated subsemigroups are order ideals. We show this presentation still makes sense without the assumption on associated subsemigroups in the sense that it gives a semigroup deserving to be an HNN extension, and it is embedded into another variant using the automata theoretical technique based on combinatorial and geometrical properties of Schützenberger graphs.     

Trunks and classifying spaces

Trunks are objects loosely analogous to categories. Like a category, a trunk has vertices and edges (analogous to objects and morphisms), but instead of composition (which can be regarded as given by preferred triangles of morphisms) it has preferred squares of edges. A trunk has a natural cubical nerve, analogous to the simplicial nerve of a category. The classifying space of the trunk is the realisation of this nerve. Trunks are important in the theory of racks [8]. A rackX gives rise to a trunkT (X) which has a single vertex and the setX as set of edges. Therack space BX ofX is the realisation of the nerveNT (X) ofT(X). The connection between the nerve of a trunk and the usual (cubical) nerve of a category determines in particular a natural mapBX BAs(X) whereBAs(X) is the classifying space of the associated group ofX. There is an extension to give a classifying space for an augmented rack, which has a natural map to the loop space of the Brown-Higgins classifying space of the associated crossed module [8, Section 2] and [3].The theory can be used to define invariants of knots and links since any invariant of the rack space of the fundamental rack of a knot or link is ipso facto an invariant of the knot or link.     

Absolutely graded Floer homologies and intersection forms for four-manifolds with boundary

In Ozsváth and Szabó (Holomorphic triangles and invariants for smooth four-manifolds, math. SG/0110169, 2001), we introduced absolute gradings on the three-manifold invariants developed in Ozsváth and Szabó (Holomorphic disks and topological invariants for closed three-manifolds, math.SG/0101206, Ann. of Math. (2001), to appear). Coupled with the surgery long exact sequences, we obtain a number of three- and four-dimensional applications of this absolute grading including strengthenings of the “complexity bounds” derived in Ozsváth and Szabó (Holomorphic disks and three-manifold invariants: properties and applications, math.SG/0105202, Ann. of Math. (2001), to appear), restrictions on knots whose surgeries give rise to lens spaces, and calculations of HF⁺ for a variety of three-manifolds. Moreover, we show how the structure of HF⁺ constrains the exoticness of definite intersection forms for smooth four-manifolds which bound a given three-manifold. In addition to these new applications, the techniques also provide alternate proofs of Donaldson's diagonalizability theorem and the Thom conjecture for .     

Quantaloids,enriched categories and automata theory

This article is intended to be an survey article outlining how the theory of quantaloids and categories enriched in them provides an effective means of analyzing both automata and tree automata. The emphasis is on the unification of concepts and how categorical methods provide insight into various calculations and theorems, both illuminating the original presentation as well as yielding conceptually simpler proofs. Proofs will be omitted and the emphasis is on providing the reader (even a relatively inexperienced one) with an understanding of the basic constructions and results.     

Homotopical variations and high-dimensional Zariski-van Kampen theorems

We give a new definition of the homotopical variation operators occurring in a recent high-dimensional Zariski-van Kampen theorem, a definition which opens the way to further generalizations of theorems of this kind.