Track extensions of categories and cohomology (Q5947280)

Suppose that \(C\) is a small category. The category of factorizations \(FC\) of \(C\) has all arrows \(\alpha :a \rightarrow b\) as objects, and a morphism from \(\alpha\) to \(\alpha': a' \rightarrow b'\) is a pair of arrows \(a' \rightarrow a\) and \(b \rightarrow b'\) such that the composite \(a' \rightarrow a \overset{\alpha}{\rightarrow} b \rightarrow b'\) is \(\alpha'\). A natural system on \(C\) is an abelian group-valued functor on \(FC\). The \(n^{th}\) cohomology group \(H^{n}(C,D)\) of \(C\) with coefficients in a natural system \(D\) can be defined in a natural way. The main result of this paper shows that the group \(H^{n+1}(C,D)\) is isomorphic to a group of equivalence classes T\(\operatorname {Ext}^{n}(C,D)\) of \(n\)-fold track extensions. The latter is a group of path components of diagrams consisting of exact sequences \[ 0 \rightarrow D \rightarrow D_{n-1} \rightarrow \dots \rightarrow D_{1} \rightarrow 0 \] of natural systems on \(C\) and an action \(D_{1} \rightarrow T\) of \(D_{1}\) on the \(2\)-cells of a category enriched in groupoids with path component.