Double groupoids and homotopy 2-types

DOI10.1007/S10485-010-9240-1MaRDI QIDQ695317zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Antonio M. Cegarra, B. A. Heredia, J. Remedios

Publication date 21 December 2012

Published in Applied Categorical Structures (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1003.3820

bisimplicial set classifying space double groupoid filling condition geometric realization homotopy type Kan complex nerve of category

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Groupoids (i.e. small categories in which all morphisms are isomorphisms) (20L05) Homotopy groups, general; sets of homotopy classes (55Q05) Topological categories, foundations of homotopy theory (55U40)

Abstract: This work contributes to clarifying several relationships between certain higher categorical structures and the homotopy types of their classifying spaces. Double categories (Ehresmann, 1963) have well-understood geometric realizations, and here we deal with homotopy types represented by double groupoids satisfying a natural `filling condition'. Any such double groupoid characteristically has associated to it `homotopy groups', which are defined using only its algebraic structure. Thus arises the notion of `weak equivalence' between such double groupoids, and a corresponding `homotopy category' is defined. Our main result in the paper states that the geometric realization functor induces an equivalence between the homotopy category of double groupoids with filling condition and the category of homotopy 2-types (that is, the homotopy category of all topological spaces with the property that the

n^{e x t t h}

homotopy group at any base point vanishes for

n g e q 3

). A quasi-inverse functor is explicitly given by means of a new `homotopy double groupoid' construction for topological spaces.

Review text

Double groupoids arise in various parts of mathematics. Here they are considered from the point of view of homotopy theory. Any double category \(\mathcal{C}\), leads to its double nerve \({\mathbf N}^2\mathcal{C}\), which is a bisimplicial set. Applying the diagonal functor, \(\Delta\), gives a simplicial set \(\Delta {\mathbf N}^2\mathcal{C}\), and thus a topological space \(|\Delta {\mathbf N}^2\mathcal{C}|\), which here is denoted simply \(|\mathcal{C}|\). This paper aims to study the homotopy type of such a \(|\mathcal{G}|\), for a double groupoid, \(\mathcal{G}\), relating it directly to the algebraic structure of \(\mathcal{G}\). The authors introduce a very natural \textit{filling condition}: given a vertical arrow, \(u\), and a horizontal arrow, \(g\), such that the horizontal source, \(s^h(g)\), of \(g\) is the vertical target, \(t^v(u)\), of \(u\), there is a square/2-cell, \(\alpha\), with \(u=s^h(\alpha)\) and \(g = t^v(\alpha)\). If \( \mathcal{G}\) is a double groupoid with filling condition, then, not only can one define connected components of \(\mathcal{G}\), but for each object \(a\in \mathcal{G}\), the authors give natural definitions of groups, \(\pi_i(\mathcal{G},a)\), \(i>0\), trivial for \(i>2\), and defined purely in terms of the algebraic structure of \(\mathcal{G}\), such that \(\pi_i(\mathcal{G},a) \cong \pi_i(|\mathcal{G}|,| a|)\), the usual topologically defined homotopy groups of the realisation of the double nerve of \(\mathcal{G}\). They prove that a double category, \(\mathcal{C}\), is a double groupoid with filling condition if, and only if, \(\Delta{\mathbf N}^2\mathcal{C}\) is a Kan complex, thus extending the simple classical result that the nerve of a category is a Kan complex if, and only if, the category is a groupoid. For any space, \(X\), they construct a homotopy double groupoid, \(\boldsymbol{\Pi}X\), and show that with the \(|\quad|\) functor, this gives an equivalence of categories between a natural homotopy category of such double groupoids with filling condition, and the homotopy category of homotopy 2-types.

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