A homotopy theory for stacks (Q926419)

This paper is the main part of a series describing the theory of stacks in terms of homotopy theory. A stack may be defined as a category fibered in groupoids over a site satisfying some descent condition. From a homotopy theoretic point of view, this descent condition can be translated to a description as a homotopy limit over coverings in the given Grothendieck topology. This is related to the description of simplicial sheaves as homotopy limits of simplicial presheaves over hypercovers by \textit{D. Dugger, S. Hollander} and \textit{D. Isaksen} [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 136, No. 1, 9--51 (2004; Zbl 1045.55007)]. Furthermore, a model structure on the category of categories fibered in groupoids over a site is constructed which is Quillen equivalent to different model structures on presheaves and sheaves of groupoids on the site. This shows how stacks may be viewed as presheaves of groupoids. It turns out that stacks are exactly the fibrant objects in a suitable model structure of presheaves of groupoids. These characterizations also allow natural generalizations to \(n\)-stacks. The construction of homotopy limits and colimits of groupoids in the beginning of the paper is of general interest apart from its application to stacks.