Homotopical aspects of commutative algebras. I: Freeness conditions for crossed squares (Q496288)

The authors investigate a jigsaw piece in the ``links between simplicial commutative algebras and classical constructions of homological algebra'': an alternative description of part of a structure called ``crossed squares of algebras''. The description is given in terms of tensor products and coproducts of crossed modules of commutative algebra. Given the subject matter the paper is necessarily quite technical. The authors take care to define relevant notions and explicate well-known arguments throughout. Nevertheless, the paper contains countless references to other published work, often to accounts of similar results in a different context, and often meant to provide motivation for the development in the paper under review. A central theme of the paper is the notion of ``freeness'' for crossed squares, which is analysed from different points of view, and related to properties of crossed and squared complexes.