A model structure à la Thomason on 2-Cat (Q856345)

There are two Quillen homotopy model structures of interest on the category of categories. The weak equivalences for the first are equivalences of categories. The weak equivalences for the second are those functors taken by the simplicial nerve to weak equivalences of simplicial sets. \textit{S. Lack} [``A Quillen model structure for 2-categories'', K-Theory 26, 171--205 (2002; Zbl 1017.18005)] described a 2-categorical version of the former: a model structure on the category \(2\text{-}{\mathcal C}at\) of 2-categories whose weak equivalences are biequivalences. The present paper obtains a 2-categorical version of the latter, whose weak equivalences are those 2-functors taken by the simplicial 2-nerve to weak equivalences. This structure on \(2\text{-}{\mathcal C}at\) has a natural path object construction defined by Bénabou's 2-category of cylinders (which is also exponentiation to the power of the arrow category for the lax Gray monoidal structure on \(2\text{-}{\mathcal C}at\)).