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Let $Cat_n$ denote the category of $n$-categories. Then Joyal's category $\Theta_n$ is (1) a full dense subcategory of $Cat_n$ which (2) is also a Reedy category.

Question: Is Joyal's category $\Theta_n$ somehow uniquely characterized by (1) and (2)?

Notes:

  • I've been ambiguous about what "category" and "$n$-category" mean -- the above statements are true whether "category" means "1-category" or "$(\infty,1)$-category". In the latter case, "$n$-category" can mean either "strict $n$-category" or "weak $(\infty,n)$-category" or various things in between.

  • I'm interested in understanding the story for any $n \in \mathbb N \cup \{\infty\}$.

  • One nice story which makes Joyal's category $\Theta_n$ look very "canonical" is the theory of generalized nerves. I'd be interested, for example, if there were something to say in that framework about getting one's nerves to be indexed by Reedy categories.

  • I'd also be interested if $\Theta_n$ didn't turn out to be literally "unique" with respect to (1) and (2), but at least "minimal" with respect to (1) and (2), or something like that.

  • When $n=1$, the question asks whether the simplex category $\Delta = \Theta_1$ is the "unique" full subcategory of $Cat$ which is a Reedy category. It sounds like the answer is probably "no" in this case, but I don't know a good counterexample.

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    $\begingroup$ Isn't $\mathbf{\Delta}_{\le 2}$ dense in $\textbf{Cat}$? I think you need to restrict attention to $(\infty, n)$-categories to justify the "need" for higher simplices. $\endgroup$
    – Zhen Lin
    Jan 16, 2022 at 15:02
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    $\begingroup$ @ZhenLin Oh wow, of course! Probably the subcategory of $\Theta_n$ where you build up wreath products with $\Delta_{\leq [2]}$ rather than $\Delta$ is already dense in strict $n$-categories too! This points to the question being subtler than I anticipated, and hinging crucially on the weak / strict distinction. In light of this, I'm not quite sure how I should modify the question, but tentatively I should probably, as you suggest, just restrict attention to the weak case. $\endgroup$
    – Tim Campion
    Jan 16, 2022 at 15:06
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    $\begingroup$ I would be very surprised if something like this was true. The category $\Theta$ is "Canonical" only if you start from the globular point of view on higher categories. But you can use other combinatorics to describe Higher categories (simplicial, cubical, or more complicated things using polygraphs) which own generalized Nerves style description of higher categories. Of course it is a bit tricky to see in advance if these are Reedy categories or not (it is not so obvious that Theta is Reedy for example) but I really don't expect that none of these would yield Reedy categories... $\endgroup$ Jan 16, 2022 at 15:18
  • $\begingroup$ @SimonHenry Maybe it becomes more plausible if I insist on having an elegant Reedy category. In this case, the Reedy factorization system must have the left half be the split epis, and the right half is almost forced to be the monos. I don't see how to cook up dense categories of polygraphs among whose free $n$-categories every surjection splits... $\endgroup$
    – Tim Campion
    Jan 16, 2022 at 15:23
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    $\begingroup$ For some reason the construction "... something to say ... about getting one's nerves ..." continues to amuse me. $\endgroup$ Jan 16, 2022 at 16:00

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I now believe what's really going on here isn't so much a question of Reedyness. Rather, we have the following:

Claim: Let $\mathcal A \subseteq Cat_n$ be a dense subcategory which is idempotent-complete. Then $\Theta_n \subseteq \mathcal A$.

Here $Cat_n$ means weak $(\infty,n)$-categories.

Remarks:

  • This does have a "Reedy" upshot, since any Reedy category worth its salt (e.g. any elegant Reedy category) will be idempotent complete. And anyway, density is unaffected by passing to the idempotent completion, so asking for idempotent-completeness is a reasonable "normalization" condition.

  • We deduce that $\Theta_n$ is the unique minimal idempotent-complete dense subcategory of $Cat_n$, or equivalently that $\Theta_n$ is the intersection of all idempotent-complete dense subcategories of $Cat_n$.

Proof of Claim: For $A \in \mathcal A$ and $\theta \in \Theta$, let $A' \in Psh_{Set}(\Theta_n)$ be an $n$-quasicategory modeling $A$, and suppose that $\theta$ is not a retract of $A'$. Then any map $A' \to \theta$ factors through $\partial \theta$, i.e. $Hom(A', \partial \theta) \to Hom(A', \theta)$ an isomorphism. So, letting $D \theta$ be a fibrant replacement for $\partial \theta$, we have that $Hom(A', D\theta) \to Hom(A', \theta)$ is a split epimorphism.

Moreover, if $\theta$ is not a retract of $A'$ for any $A \in \mathcal A$, then the isomorphism $Hom(A', \partial \theta) \to Hom(A', \theta)$ is natural in $A'$, and so we get a splitting of $Hom(A', D\theta) \to Hom(A', \theta)$ which is natural in $A'$. That is, the map $\nu_\mathcal{A}(D\theta) \to \nu_\mathcal{A}(\theta)$ is a split epimorphism, where $\nu_\mathcal{A} : Cat_n \to Psh_{Spaces}(\mathcal A)$ is the restricted Yoneda embedding. If $\mathcal A \subseteq Cat_n$ is dense, so that $\nu_\mathcal{A}$ is fully faithful, this implies that $D \theta \to \theta$ is a split epimorphism in $Cat_n$.

That this is generally not the case follows from the following observations:

Notation: For $\theta \in \Theta$, let $H(\theta)$ denote the "long" $n$-fold hom-space of $\theta$, and let $H(D\theta)$ denote the "long" $n$-fold hom-space of $D\theta$ (where $n = dim(\theta)$). (So $H(\theta)$ is contractible -- its unique element is the "big" $n$-morphism of $\theta$ -- the one obtained by pasting together all the other $k$-morphisms of $\theta$ for $k \leq n$. $H(\partial \theta)$ is the boundary of this contractible space.)

Let $\hat \times$ denote the pushout-product of maps of spaces.

Lemma: For $\theta = [k \mid \theta_1, \dots, \theta_k] \in \Theta_n$, we have $H(\theta) \simeq \ast$, $H(\partial [1]) = \emptyset$, and $H(\partial \theta) \simeq (H(\partial \theta_1) \to \ast) \hat \times \cdots \hat \times (H(\partial \theta_k) \to \ast)$.

Proof: That $H(\theta) = \ast$ is obvious and so also that $H(\partial [1]) = \emptyset$. We have $H(\theta) \cong H(\theta_1) \times \cdots \times H(\theta_k)$. The result then follows from the colimit decomposition of $\partial \theta$.

Notation: For $N \in \mathbb N$, let $\underline{N}^n \in \Theta_n$ be defined inductively by $\underline{N}^1 = [N]$, and $\underline{N}^{n+1} = [N \mid \underline{N}^n,\dots,\underline{N}^n]$.

Corollary: For $N \geq 3$ and all $n$, $H(\underline{N}^n)$ is a sphere of finite dimension $\geq 1$.

Proof: When $n = 1$, $H(\underline{N}^1) \simeq S^{N-2}$, as can be computed using the homotopy coherent nerve. Then higher $H(\underline{N}^n)$'s are iterated joins of this space with itself (by the Lemma), so form connected spheres as claimed.

Corollary: For $N \geq 3$ and $\theta = \underline{N}^n$, the map $D\theta \to \theta$ is not a split epimorphism in $Cat_n$.

Proof: Suppose there is a section. On the long hom-space, this is a map from a disk $D^m = H(\theta)$ to a sphere $S^{m-1} = H(D\theta)$. But any section must be the identity on all but the long hom-space, and therefore it must fix the boundary of the disk $D^m$. That is, the section actually induces a retraction from the disk $D^m$ to its boundary, which Brouwer showed is impossible.


Returning to the proof of the main claim, we see that for $N \geq 3$, we have that $\underline{N}^n$ must be a retract of an object of $\mathcal A$, and hence by idempotent-completeness, must lie in $\mathcal A$. As every $\theta \in \Theta_n$ is a retract of some $\underline{N}^n$, it follows that $\theta \in \mathcal A$ as claimed.

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  • $\begingroup$ This is very interesting! Do you know if there is a way, in the $n=1$ case, to "recover" the weak Kan lifting condition from this kind of arguments, and thus go towards a "model-independent" proof that $Cat_1$ is equivalent to the quasicategorical model? I would be happy with a circular argument, as long as it "justifies" the quasicategorical model from abstract $(∞,1)$-categorical considerations. $\endgroup$ Oct 10, 2023 at 11:01

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