Pointed homotopy of maps between 2-crossed modules of commutative algebras (Q303911)

A 2-crossed module of commutative algebras, \(\mathcal{A}= (L\overset{\partial_2}{\rightarrow} E\overset{\partial_1}{\rightarrow}R,\blacktriangle,\{ \-,\-\})\), with \(\blacktriangle\) denoting the action, and \(\{ \-,\-\}\) the `Peiffer lifting', is the analogue in the setting of commutative algebras of the better known 2-crossed modules of groups which model connected homotopy 3-types. (They correspond to simplicial algebras whose Moore complex has length 2.) Morphisms of such 2-crossed modules are defined in an obvious way. The category of 2-crossed modules of commutative algebras has a Quillen model category structure in which all objects are fibrant, so the corresponding notion of homotopy behaves well on cofibrant objects. These cofibrant objects are the retracts of those which are free up to order 2, that is, \((E\overset{\partial_1}{\rightarrow}R,\blacktriangle)\) is a free precrossed module of commutative algebras. For general 2-crossed modules, the evident homotopy relation between morphisms is not an equivalence relation. This paper studies in some depth that homotopy relation and shows that homotopy \textit{is} an equivalence relation if \(\mathcal{A}\) is free up to order 1, i.e., \(R\) is a free commutative algebra, a condition that is strictly weaker that that of being cofibrant.