Homotopy ends and Thomason model categories (Q5956139)

Just before his death, Thomason worked extensively on reworking the theory of model categories with the aim of resolving the problem raised by Grothendieck many years earlier, namely of finding a notion of homotopy theory (similar to that of Quillen) that would be inherited by functor categories. (This problem in its homological context, i.e., for the homotopical algebra of chain complexes and the resulting derived category theory, was felt by \textit{A. Grothendieck} to be important for understanding the geometric interpretation of higher order homotopy types of schemes. It is briefly discussed in his 1984 notes, ``Pursuing stacks''.) Thomason filled several notebooks with this new theory, but the work was never published. The author of this paper has performed the exacting and important task of producing a coherent and beautifully written account of this work.