2-nerves for bicategories (Q2481128)

The simplicial category \(\pmb\Delta \) is a full subcategory of the category \({\mathcal C}at_{0}\) of small categories and functors. It is well known that the colimit-preserving extension \([\Delta^{\text{op}},{\mathbf{Set}}]\rightarrow {\mathcal C}at_{0}\) to simplicial sets of the inclusion functor has a fully faithful right adjoint called the simplicial-nerve-of-categories functor. Write \(\mathbf{Cat}\) for the 2-category of small categories, functors, and natural transformations. The authors consider the 2-category \(\mathbf{NHom}\) of small bicategories, normal homomorphisms, and identity-component-oplax-natural transformations (which they use the acronym ``icons''). Then \(\pmb\Delta\) is a full sub-2-category of \(\mathbf{Cat}\). The 2-colimit-preserving extension \([\Delta ^{\text{op}},\mathbf{Cat}]\rightarrow \text\textbf{NHom}\) to simplicial categories of the inclusion 2-functor has a right adjoint which is the authors' 2-nerve \(N:\mathbf{NHom}\rightarrow [\Delta ^{\mathrm{op}},\text\textbf{Cat}]\). The main results of the paper are that \(N\) is a fully faithful 2-functor and it induces a biequivalence between \(\mathbf{NHom}\) and a certain 2-category of Tamsamani weak 2-categories.