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This is a wiki-lab for collaborative work on Mathematics, Physics and Philosophy — especially from the n-point of view: insofar as these subjects are usefully treated with tools and notions of category theory or higher category theory.

Purpose

We think of this wiki as our lab book that we happen to keep open for all to see.

The purpose of the $n$Lab is to provide a public place where people can make notes about stuff. The purpose is not to make polished expositions of material; that is a happy by-product.

We all make notes as we read papers, read books and doodle on pads of paper. The $n$Lab is somewhere to put all those notes, and, incidentally, to make them available to others. Others might read them and add or polish them. But even if they don’t, it is still easier to link from them to other notes that you’ve made.

For more see About.

We originally designed this place as as an adjunct to the $n$-Category Café, but it's more independent now.

Discussions

While we work on the $n$Lab, we talk to each other on the nForum. We inform ourselves about latest edits to the $n$Lab in the part nForum – latest changes. Have a look around there.

Contributing to the $n$Lab

If after looking around for a while you feel like contributing yourself, you are welcome to do so. But read About to be sure you understand what we are doing here (to the extent that we understand this ourselves, at least). If you feel unsure about appropriate content, see What to Contribute. For technical hints see HowTo.

If you make any edits to the $n$Lab, please inform the rest of the $n$Lab community by dropping a brief message in the latest changes section of the nForum!

Using the $n$Lab

One goal of the $n$Lab is to help make information widely available and usefully related to other information. In this users and contributors are expected to follow traditional academic practice:

• Using content obtained from the $n$Lab in your publications is free and encouraged if you acknowledge the source, as usual. Because $n$Lab pages can change, in citing a page you should point to a specific version of it. You can find a list of all the versions of a page by clicking on the History link at the bottom of the page itself.

• Conversely, any content contributed to $n$Lab is publicly available and you should be aware that others may use your contributions (whatever you decide to do with their content elsewhere) or indeed edit them. In the first case you trust that users will cite your contributions properly, in the second that they will respect and only improve on them. At the same time, you are expected to properly acknowledge sources of information for material entered into the $n$Lab.

Usually this works well. If there is need for discussion, the nForum is the forum to turn to. If serious problems arise, the steering committee might intervene.

Software requirements

The $n$Lab displays mathematical symbols using MathML.

Notice that you don’t need to know any MathML. Only your browser does. You write formulas into the $n$Lab between dollar signs in iTeX, which is designed to be very similar to ordinary LaTeX.

Some web-browsers, notably Firefox, know how to display MathML automatically, although you may need to install some fonts. For InternetExplorer one needs the MathPlayer plugin; download is quick and easy and free. For more see HowTo.

Steering Committee

The $n$Lab is a community undertaking. But for all matters that do require that the $n$Lab is represented to the outside by an official decision-taking body, we have the steering committee. Nobody “is in charge of the $n$Lab”. But the steering committee is the closest approximation to a body being in charge that we have.

category: meta