Higher central extensions and Hopf formulae (Q615855)

The notions of higher extensions and higher central extensions were introduced by Everaert, Gran and Van der Linden. Making use of these notions, they provided a new approach to non-abelian (categorical) homology theory. The article under review further studies higher extensions and higher central extensions, and their fundamental properties. The paper takes an axiomatic approach to higher extensions. This allows the author to treat \(n\)-fold extensions (for \(n-1\)) as if they were 1-fold extensions, and also, in the same time, as if they were (\(n - 1\))-fold extensions. As an application, a direct proof of the invariance of the higher Hopf formulae with respect to the considered higher presentation is given. The article provides a base for further study in homology theory via the Brown-Ellis-Hopf formulae.