Loop and suspension functors for small categories and stable homotopy groups (Q1395760)

The classical way of defining homotopy groups of categories is via the classifying space functor introduced by Segal or by using the closed model structure in \({\mathcal C}at\) given by Thomason which is lifted from the structure defined in the category of simplicial sets. In a previous paper, the author proposed an alternative model structure for \({\mathcal C}at\) which is based on a family of cylinders constructed from the finite interval categories. In this paper, the author investigates a family of \(\alpha \)-suspension and \(\alpha \)-loop functors in the category of small categories and relate these families of functors to the classical suspension and loop functors of spaces. It is also proved an analogue of the Freudenthal suspension theorem for categories with certain cofibration condition.