Questions tagged [higher-category-theory]
For questions involving one or more categorical dimensions, or involving homotopy coherent categorical structures.
435
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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What did Gelfand mean by suggesting to study "Heredity Principle" structures instead of categories?
Israel Gelfand wrote in his remarkable talk "Mathematics as an adequate language (a few remarks)", given at "The Unity of Mathematics" Conference in honor of his 90th birthday, the ...
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What is the current status of derived differential geometry?
I hope you will excuse this naive and general question. I've read from many places (e.g. Dominic Joyce's website, John Pardon's thesis, etc.) that the/a "right" foundations for many ...
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Is there anything to the obvious analogy between Joyal's combinatorial species and Goodwillie calculus?
Combinatorial species and calculus of functors both take the viewpoint that many interesting functors can be expanded in a kind of Taylor series. Many operations familiar from actual calculus can be ...
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The $(\infty, 1)$-category of all topological spaces, including the bad ones
[Edit: Corrected some false claims and modified questions accordingly.]
Let $\mathcal{S}$ be the cocomplete $(\infty, 1)$-category generated by a point.
This is conventionally known as the $(\infty, 1)...
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What is the status of the cobordism hypothesis?
Let $\mathscr{C}$ be a symmetric monoidal (weak) $n$-category. A framed extended TQFT of dimension $n$ with values in $\mathscr{C}$ is a symmetric monoidal functor from the framed bordism $n$-category ...
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18
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Is there a quantum group or loop group description of a braided monoidal 2-category giving Khovanov homology?
Recall that there are (at least) two ways to describe the modular tensor category that $3$-dimensional Chern-Simons (with gauge group $G$ and level $k$) assigns to a circle: one involving ...
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16
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Characterization of geometric morphisms without referring explicitly to the left adjoint?
Recall that a functor $f_\ast : \mathcal E \to \mathcal F$ between toposes is called a geometric morphism if it has a left exact left adjoint $f^\ast$. Is there an intrinsic characterization of such ...
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Specific cases of the tangle hypothesis in terms of "classical" n-categories
As is well known, the tangle hypothesis of Baez and Dolan proposes that, for suitable definitions, the $n$-category of framed $n$-tangles in $n+k$ dimensions is the free $k$-tuply monoidal $n$-...
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"extended TQFT" versus "TQFT with defects"
There are two ways in which higher categories appear in topological field theory: in extended TFTs and in TFTs with defects. How are these appearances related?
According to the Atiyah-Segal axioms, a ...
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584
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What are some examples of weak ω-categories?
As is usual, let's say an (n, k)-category is something with
objects, morphisms, 2-morphisms, ..., n-morphisms, such that all
j-morphisms for j > k are invertible, everything meant in the
weak sense. ...
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15
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357
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Lurie's applications of $\infty$-topoi in topology
Lurie's book Higher Topos Theory is extremely interesting, but pretty overwhelming. I don't have the time to read it at the moment. However, the last chapter (7) gives applications of $\infty$-topoi ...
- 704
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What to expect from spectral algebraic geometry
So I've been trying to learn some derived algebraic geometry, and I've chosen to approach the subject from the perspective of spectral or "brave new" algebraic geometry. Without having to go through ...
- 2,969
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Chiral categories versus braided monoidal categories
Let $X$ be a curve over $\mathbf{C}$. As I understand from the 2008 Talbot notes, a chiral category on $X$ consists of a crystal of categories on the Ran space $\mathrm{Ran}(X)$ (see these notes of ...
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Which limits distribute over which colimits in $Set$? How about in $Spaces$?
I've never really thought much about distributivity of limits and colimits -- I tend to think more about commutativity of limits and colimits. This question makes me want to change that.
The question ...
- 61.6k
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The quantization problem: modern quantization procedures and current status
The quantization problem is one of the most well-known current problems of theoretical and mathematical physics. It is also part of Hilbert's sixth problem (on the axiomatization of physics - see here ...
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Cohesive ∞-toposes for analytic geometry
There is a class of big ∞-toposes that come with a good supply of intrinsic notions of differential geometry and differential cohomology: called cohesive ∞-toposes (after Lawvere's cohesive toposes).
...
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What is the relationship between Goodwillie calculus and derived deformation theory?
Goodwillie calculus is a way of understanding a functor $F$ in terms of its Goodwillie tower, a tower whose limit approximates $F$, whose layers can be understood in terms of stable data. Derived ...
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Categorification of "Every domain embeds into a field"?
In the category of commutative rings, every domain embeds into a field. Is this true in the category of presentably symmetric monoidal stable $\infty$-categories? Here's what I mean by that.
Let $...
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245
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Is every colimit-generator dense in an $\infty$-topos?
Recall that there are various senses in which a full subcategory $G \subseteq C$ may "generate" a category $C$. For example, in order of increasing strength (under reasonable conditions):
$G$ is a ...
- 61.6k
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Is the operadic nerve functor an equivalence of ∞-categories?
It is now known that the $\infty$-category of $\infty$-operads as defined by Lurie is equivalent to the underlying $\infty$-category of the model category of simplicial operads, see http://arxiv.org/...
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255
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Higher homotopical information in racks and quandles
A quandle is defined to be a set $Q$ with two binary operations $\star,\bar\star\colon\ Q\times Q\to Q$ for which the following axioms hold.
Q1. a $\star$ a = a
Q2. (a $\star$ b) $\bar\star$ b = (a $\...
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Comparing derived categories of quasi-coherent sheaves in the lisse-etale and the big etale toplogy on an algebraic stack
I am trying to understand the proof of Proposition 1.4.2. in "A study of derived algebraic geometry Volume 1" by Gaitsgory-Rozenblyum. http://www.math.harvard.edu/~gaitsgde/GL/QCohBook.pdf, page 8.
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How can you unitalize a higher category?
Given an associative nonunital algebra $A$, there are (at least) two standard ways to produce a unital algebra $A'$ together with a map $A \to A'$. Following the discussion in the comments below, ...
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Is there a Rado category?
The Rado graph appears to have a nice universality property (it contains all finite and all countably infinite graphs as induced subgraphs) and homogeinety property (any isomorphism between finite/...
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451
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What is the history of the notion of subdivision of categories?
A recent answer by Peter May prompts me to ask a question which I have been considering to ask for several months. (The reason why I have not asked it before is that it is not directly related to my ...
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300
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What are some examples of 3-dualizable $(\infty,2)$ categories?
From the cobordism hypothesis, we know that (the space of) symmetric monoidal functors from the $(\infty,3)$ category of framed cobordisms into a symmetric monoidal $(\infty,3)$ category is the same ...
- 2,035
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What is the core of a localization?
Let $(\mathbf{C}, \mathbf{W})$ be a relative category where $\mathbf{W}$ is saturated; i.e. it is equal to the subcategory of arrows inverted by $\gamma : \mathbf{C} \to \mathbf{C}[\mathbf{W}^{-1}]$.
...
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Where is it shown that homotopy sheaves form a higher stack?
Many references on infinity categories etc. advertise that one application is that it's an appropriate setting to glue (the appropriate replacement for) derived categories of sheaves.
What's the ...
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Visualization and new geometry in higher stacks
I am trying to develop a geometrical intuition for "higher spaces", i.e. both in the sense of higher dimensional spaces (more than three dimensions) and in the sense of abstractions beyond ...
- 767
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230
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KK-theory by abelianized correspondences of smooth stacks?
Whith (Kasparov, bivariant) KK-theory I am left with the nagging feeling that the theory is "more fundamental", than has been made explicit, that there is a "more profound" universal characterization ...
- 19.6k
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Generating acyclic cofibrations for the various model structures in higher category theory
There are a number of model categories important in higher category theory, which provide a "presentation" of some $\infty$-category of $\infty$-categories. For example:
The Joyal model structure on ...
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10
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478
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Reconstruction of commutative differential graded algebras
Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $0$.
Let $A,B$ be commutative differential graded algebras (cdga) over $k$ such that $H^{i}(A)=H^{i}(B) =0 \ (i>0)$.
Here, differentials ...
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Rectifying diagrams of $\infty$-categories
If $C$ is a 1-category and $D$ is a locally presentable $(\infty,1)$-category presented by a combinatorial model (1-)category $M$, then any $(\infty,1)$-functor $C\to D$ can be represented by a strict ...
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Classification of derived formal group laws
Denote by $SCR$ the $\infty$-category of "simplicial commutative rings" (i.e. the nonabelian derived category of the category of finitely generated polynomial rings). Given $R \in SCR$, one ...
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When is Fun(X,C) comonadic over C with respect to the colimit functor?
Because I'm primarily interested in this question from the point of view of $\infty$-categories (in this case, modeled by quasicategories), I'll ask this question using that terminology. In particular,...
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Differentiation of Lie $\infty$-groupoids
I've been trying to understand how to differentiate Lie $\infty$-groupoids to get a Lie $\infty$-algebroid. First of all, I will state the definitions that I'm assuming.
A Lie $\infty$-groupoid is a ...
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What suffices to check completeness in an n-fold Segal space?
Recall that a Segal space is a simplicial space $X : \Delta \to \mathrm{Spaces}$, $\bullet \mapsto X_\bullet$, which satisfies the
Segal condition: For each $j$, the map
$$ X_j \to \underbrace{...
- 53.1k
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What is a stable $(n,1)$-category?
My question in its simplest form is whether we have any understanding of stable $(n,1)$-categories, by analogy with stable $(\infty,1)$-categories and abelian categories (the latter being like "stable ...
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510
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When does a sheaf of categories represent a homotopy sheaf?
Suppose that $F$ is a sheaf of categories (on a Grothendieck site or even a topological space). By this, I mean a sheaf in the naive 1-categorical sense, so it can equivalently be viewed as a category ...
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Which endomorphism algebras are not Morita-trivial?
Let $\mathcal C$ be a symmetric monoidal category — for example, $\mathcal C$ might be the category of $R$-modules for a commutative ring $R$. At a minimum, I request further that:
$\mathcal C$ is ...
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Using higher topos theory to study Cech cohomology
It seems to me that many classical statements about Cech cohomology should without much effort follow from Lurie's HTT, but I am struggling to fill out the details. I want to show that, given an ...
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Applications of the simplex $2$-category and its higher dimensional cousins
The simplex category $\Delta$ has a $2$-category refinement $\Delta_2$ given by the full sub-$2$-category of the $2$-category $\mathsf{Cat}$ spanned by the ordinal categories $𝟘$, $𝟙$, $𝟚:=𝟙\star𝟘...
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What is the Goodwillie calculus interpretation of Quillen's rational homotopy theory?
$\newcommand\Spaces{\mathit{Spaces}}\newcommand\sLie{\mathit{sLie}}\DeclareMathOperator\id{id}$Let $X$ be a space. Then $\pi_\ast(X)$ is a shifted Lie algebra under the Whitehead bracket $[-,-]$. ...
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How does one classify monoidal biclosed structures on $Cat$?
Foltz, Kelly, and Lair assert that there are exactly two monoidal biclosed structures on the 1-category $Cat$ of small categories. But most of the proof is left as an "exercise" (see Prop 4)....
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Operads and Inverses
One slightly displeasing thing about the theory of operads is that they are unable to encode the structure of inverses; e.g. the recognition principle for $n$-fold loop spaces says "there is an ...
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Does every exponentiable ($\infty$-)topos have enough points?
The notion of a coherent topos is a somewhat "refined" finiteness condition to put on a topos. One reason it is considered a "fruitful" notion is the Deligne completeness theorem, ...
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Coherent objects in a hypercomplete $\infty$-topos
In Lurie's "Spectral Algebraic Geometry", Proposition A.6.6.1 (2) shows that for $\mathcal{X}$ an $\infty$-topos that is both locally coherent and hypercomplete, the full subcategory $\...
- 884
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A bicategorical representation theorem
The representation theorem in $1$-category theory states that a presheaf $\mathcal{F}$ is representable iff $\int_\mathcal{C}\mathcal{F}$ has a terminal object. When one tries to formulate a ...
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Homotopy pullbacks of simplicial sets; Joyal vs Kan-Quillen model structures
I am interested in comparison of homotopy pullback squares in the category of simplicial sets with respect to Joyal' model structure and Quillen's one.
Suppose we are given a (strict) pullback square
...
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In what context can enriched category theory be done?
There are many possible situations one can do enriched category theory. See https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/category+of+V-enriched+categories#possible_contexts for a list.
My question is what ...
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