Homotopy commutative diagrams and their realizations (Q1124166)

It often happens that one wants to replace a homotopy commutative diagram by an equivalent commutative one. This paper describes an obstruction theory to being able to do this. It generalizes work of \textit{G. Cooke} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 237, 391-406 (1978; Zbl 0434.55008)]. One of the main results is that a homotopy commutative D-inexed diagram has a realization if and only if it can be realized as a homotopy coherent diagram. [Reviewer's remark: It is unfortunate that the authors do not see fit to refer to the extensive work by \textit{R. M. Vogt} [Math. Z. 134, 11-52 (1973; Zbl 0276.55006)] on homotopy coherent diagrams. In particular the result mentioned above would seem to be an easy consequence of Vogt's main result, given the simplicial interpretation of homotopy coherence diagrams developed by \textit{J. M. Cordier} [Cah. Topologie Géom. Differ. 23, 93-112 (1982; Zbl 0493.55009)] which corresponds exactly to the authors' notion of \(\infty\)-homotopy commutative diagrams. The notion of rectification of a homotopy coherent diagram again due to Cordier and used by \textit{J. M. Cordier} and the reviewer [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 100, 65-90 (1986; Zbl 0603.55017)] is also relevant in this context. The results proved in the paper under review present new light on this area, but lack of any interaction with the existing theory would seem a serious omission.]