The unit of the total décalage adjunction (Q777242)

Let \(\Delta\) be the simplex category and \(\sigma : \Delta\times \Delta\to \Delta\) the ordinal sum functor on \(\Delta\) described on objects via \(\sigma([k], [l]) = [k+1+l]\). For the set category \(\mathcal{S}et\), the induced functor \(\sigma^\ast : \mathcal{S}et^{\Delta^{op}}\to \mathcal{S}et^{(\Delta\times \Delta)^{op}}\) is sometimes called \textit{total décalage} and denoted \(\mbox{Dec}\), going back to \textit{L. Illusie} [Complexe cotangent et déformations. II. Springer, Cham (1972; Zbl 0238.13017)]. The functor \(\sigma^\ast=\mbox{Dec}\) has a right adjoint \(\sigma_\ast: \mathcal{S}et^{(\Delta\times \Delta)^{op}}\to \mathcal{S}et^{\Delta^{op}}\) which often appears in the literature; it is known as \(\overline{W}\) or as the \textit{total simplicial set} functor \(T\), in e.g. [\textit{M. Artin} and \textit{B. Mazur}, Topology 5, 179--189 (1966; Zbl 0138.18301)]. The aim of this article is to give a full and explicit description of the simplicial object \(\mbox{TDec} (X)\) and of the unit \(X \to \mbox{TDec} (X)\) for any object \(X\) in \(\mathcal{C}^{\Delta^{op}}\), where \(\mathcal{C}\) is any bicomplete category, rather than just the category \(\mathcal{S}et\). The authors identify the object \(\mbox{TDec} (X)\) with the path object \(X^{\Delta[1]}\) for any object \(X\) in \(\mathcal{C}^{\Delta^{op}}\). Then, this formula is used to produce an explicit retracting homotopy for the unit \(X\to \mbox{TDec} (X)\) of the adjunction \((\mbox{Dec}, T)\). When \(\mathcal{C}\) is a category of objects of an algebraic nature, it is shown that this unit is a weak equivalence of simplicial objects in \(\mathcal{C}\).