Some characterizations of acyclic maps (Q2274457)

In this paper, the author shows in Section 2 two categorical characterizations of the class of acyclic maps between spaces, that is, maps whose homotopy fibers are acyclic spaces. The first characterization states that a map is acyclic if, and only if, it is an epimorphism, this last notion being the categorical dual of the notion of monomorphism as defined in higher category theory, cf. [\textit{J. Lurie}, Higher topos theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2009; Zbl 1175.18001)]. The second characterization states that a map is acyclic if, and only if, it is balanced. This notion of balanced map is motivated by a well-known property of acyclic maps, and it is defined by demanding that maps whose homotopy pullbacks along \(\pi_0\)-surjective maps define also homotopy pushouts. Finally, Section 3 of the paper is devoted to identifying the modality (see [\textit{M. Anel}, \textit{G. Biedermann}, \textit{E. Finster} and \textit{A. Joyal}, ``A generalized Blakers-Massey theorem'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1703.09050}]) in the homotopy theory of spaces defined by the class of acyclic maps, and Blakers-Massey theorems associated with this modality are then discussed.