Classifying spaces for braided monoidal categories and lax diagrams of bicategories (Q610685)

Each category \(\mathcal A\) has a simplicial nerve \(N\mathcal A\) as described for example in Chapter II, Section 4 of \textit{P. Gabriel} and \textit{M. Zisman} [Calculus of fractions and homotopy theory. Berlin etc.: Springer-Verlag (1967; Zbl 0186.56802)]. The geometric realization of \(N \mathcal A\) is called the classifying space \(B \mathcal A\) of \(\mathcal A\). If \(\mathcal A\) is a (braided) monoidal category then, up to group completion, \(B\mathcal A\) has the homotopy type of a (double) loop space; for precise recent work see \textit{C. Berger} [Contemp. Math. 227, 49--66 (1999; Zbl 1010.55008)]. Each weak \(n\)-category \(\mathcal K\) should have a simplicial nerve \(N\mathcal K\) (see the reviewer's ``Categorical and combinatorial aspects of descent theory'' [\textit{R. Street}, Appl. Categ. Struct. 12, No.~5--6, 537--576 (2004; Zbl 1082.18011)]) and hence a classifying space \(B\mathcal K\). If \(x\) is a \(0\)-cell of \(\mathcal K\) then the hom \(K(x,x) \) is a monoidal \((n-1)\)-category; so we can form both \(B\mathcal K\) and \(B\mathcal K( x,x) \). It seems reasonable to conjecture that \(B\mathcal K( x,x) \) has the same homotopy type as the loop space \(\Omega B \mathcal K\) when \(\mathcal K\) has only the one \(0\)-cell \(x\). Iterating, we would deduce that \(B\mathcal K( x,x) (1_{x},1_{x})\) and the double loop space \(\Omega^{2} B\mathcal K\) have the same homotopy type when \(\mathcal K\) has a single \(1\)-cell. The authors prove a strong form of this conjecture for \(n=3\). A braided monoidal category \(\mathcal{M}\) can be regarded as a weak \(3\)-category (tricategory) \(\Sigma ^{2}\mathcal{M}\) with a single \(1\)-cell. The authors give a homotopy equivalence between the classifying space \(B \mathcal{M}\) of \(\mathcal{M}\) as a category and the double loop space of \(B \Sigma ^{2}\mathcal{M}\). Their proof uses an analysis of classifying spaces for lax diagrams of bicategories following the way \textit{G. Segal} [Topology 13, 293--312 (1974; Zbl 0284.55016)] and \textit{R. W. Thomason} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 85, 91--109 (1979; Zbl 0392.18001)] analysed lax diagrams of categories.