An algebraic representation of globular sets (Q2183483)

This paper investigates the linearization of globular sets with respect to any integral domain \(R\). This linearization is an augmented chain complex in \(R\)-modules. By analogy with Steenrod's cup-\(i\) coalgebra structure on simplicial chains, the globular case features a comultiplication twisted by chains on the globular version of \(S^\infty\), inducing the structure of a counital cosymmetric \(R\)-coalgebra as introduced in this paper. The first main result is then Theorem 2.4, stating that the resulting functor from globular sets to counital cosymmetric \(R\)-coalgebras is fully faithful, with the proof given in Section 4. The paper also recalls a known construction of (strict) \(\omega\)-categories associated to chain complexes in \(R\)-modules, and uses it together with properties of group-like elements and Steiner's theory of directed complexes to derive a new characterization of Street's orientals: the \(n\)-dimensional oriental is the \(\omega\)-category associated to the chain complex over \(\mathbb{F}_2\) given by the Steenrod cup-\(i\) coalgebra of the \(n\)-simplex.