Categories with homotopy determine a closed model structure (Q2654109)

A \(3\)-category -- or an even higher category -- is a ``category with homotopy'' satisfying certain axioms. One thinks about \(2\)-morphisms as homotopies and \(3\)-morphisms as homotopies between homotopies. To each homotopy \(\omega: f \rightarrow g\) there should correspond a homotopy \(\tilde\omega: g \rightarrow f\) and when \(\omega: f \rightarrow f\) coincides with \(\tilde\omega\) there should exist a \(3\)-morphism \(\Omega: \omega \rightarrow 1_f\). This structure is not enough to do homotopical algebra in the sense of [\textit{D. G. Quillen}, Homotopical algebra. Lecture Notes in Mathematics. 43. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag. (1967; Zbl 0168.20903)], so the author introduces the richer structure of a category with simplicial homotopy. Such a category has an action of simplicial sets (in fact an action of simplicial subsets of \(3\)-cubes -- or higher ones -- suffices) and this action has an adjoint so that objects \(X \times I\) or \(X^I\) can be used to define the notion of homotopy. This action should satisfy a few axioms, such as commuting with limits and colimits. A category with simplicial homotopy is always a category with homotopy and the main result of this article is that it also admits a Quillen model structure. In the last part the simplicial envelope of a category with homotopy is constructed. This approach could be compared with the one based on simplicial categories, meaning here categories enriched over simplicial sets. They provide well established models for homotopy theories, see for example \textit{J. E. Bergner}'s [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 359, No.~5, 2043--2058 (2007; Zbl 1114.18006)].