nLab descent

Idea

From the point of view of infinity category theory (nPOV), descent is the study of generalizations of the sheaf condition on presheaves to presheaves with values in higher categories. Those higher presheaves that satisfy descent are called infinity-stacks.

More generally, descent theory studies existence and (non)uniqueness of an object $u$ in a (possibly higher) category $C_X$ provided some “inverse image” functor $f^*:C_X\to C_Y$ which applied to $u$ produces an object in some (possibly higher) category $C_Y$, or a collection of inverse image functors $\{f^*_\alpha:C_X\to C_{Y_\alpha}\}_{\alpha\in I}$ is given. Labels $Y_\alpha$ are considered as labels of local regions, over which objects in $C_{Y_\alpha}$ live and the inverse image functor is considered as some sort of restriction along geometric morphism of spaces from $Y_\alpha\to X$. In favourable cases, the nonuniqueness is parametrized by equipping the object $f^*(u)$ with additional “gluing” data $\xi$. The pair $(f^*(u),\xi)$ is called a descent datum, the existence of a reconstruction procedure of $u$ from $(f^*(u),\xi)$ is also called a descent, and it describes the property that the (higher) category of descent data in $C_Y$ is equivalent to the category $C_X$, or at least that it embeds via a canonical fully faithful functor. Descent theory in the 1-categorical context was first formulated by Grothendieck in FGA using pseudofunctors, and in SGA1 using fibered categories.

The most important case is when there is a descent (in the sense of equivalence of higher categories) along an inverse image functor along every cover of a Grothendieck topology or its higher analogue; though many cases (for example descent in noncommutative algebraic geometry) do not fit into this framework. These cases of descent along all covers is also called (higher) stack theory and may be phrased in modern viewpoint as a characterization of $(\infty,1)$-sheaves (i.e. $\infty$-stacks) among all $(\infty,1)$-presheaves as those $(\infty,1)$-presheaves which are local objects with respect to certain morphisms $Y \to X$ which are to be regarded as covers or hypercover of the $(\infty,1)$-presheaf $X$: the idea is that an $(\infty,1)$-sheaf “descends from the cover $Y$ down to $X$”.

More concretely

• every (∞,1)-category of (∞,1)-sheaves is characterized as being a sub-(∞,1)-topos $Sh(S) \hookrightarrow PSh(S)$ of the $(\infty,1)$-topos of (∞,1)-presheaves on some (small) (∞,1)-category $S$;

• every such $(\infty,1)$-topos is a reflective (∞,1)-subcategory of $PSh(S)$, hence a localization of an (∞,1)-category at a collection $W = \{Y \to X\}$ of morphisms which are sent to equivalences by the left adjoint of the inclusion;

• and the sheaves in $Sh(S) \hookrightarrow PSh(S)$ are precisely the local objects with respect to this collection $W$ of morphisms, i.e. precisely those objects $A \in PSh(S)$ such that $PSh(S)(X,A) \to PSh(S)(Y,A)$ is an isomorphism in the homotopy category, which we shall write $PSh(S)(X,A) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} PSh(S)(Y,A)$ in the following paragraphs.

• This condition is essentially the descent conditon.

In concrete models for the (∞,1)-category of (∞,1)-sheaves – notably in terms of the model structure on simplicial presheaves – the morphisms $Y \to X$ in $W$ usually come from hypercovers $Y \to X$;

in this case the above condition becomes $PSh(S)(X,A) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} PSh(S)(colim^\Delta Y_\bullet, A)$ which is equivalent to $PSh(S)(X,A) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} lim^\Delta PSh(S)(Y_\bullet, A)$. This in turn is usually equivalently written

$$A(X) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} Desc(Y_\bullet \to X, A) := lim^\Delta A(Y_\bullet) \,.$$

And this is the form of the local object-condition which is usually called descent condition.

Descent for ordinary sheaves

Descent is best understood as a direct generalization of the situation for 0-stacks, i.e. ordinary sheaves, which we briefly recall in a language suitable for the following generalization.

For $S$ any small category and Set the category of small sets, write $\mathrm{PSh}(S) = [S^{op}, Set]$ for the category of presheaves on $S$. Categories of this form enjoy various nice properties which are familiar from $Set$ itself, and which are summarized by saying that $\mathrm{PSh}(S)$ is a topos. The relevance of this for the present purpose is that there is a natural notion of morphisms of topoi, which are functors respecting this structure in some sense: these are called geometric morphisms.

A category of sheaves on $S$ is a sub-topos of $PSh(S)$ in that there is a full and faithful functor $Sh(S)\hookrightarrow PSh(S)$ which is a geometric morphism.

One finds that the reflective subcategory $Sh(S) \hookrightarrow PSh(S)$ of sheaves inside presheaves is the localization of $PSh(S)$ at morphisms $f : Y \to X$ called local isomorphisms, which are determined by and determine the choice of topos-inclusion. A presheaf $A$ is a sheaf precisely if it is a local object with respect to these local isomorphisms, that is precisely if

$$Hom_{PSh(S)}(X,A) \stackrel{Hom_{PSh(S)}(f,A)}{\to} Hom_{PSh(S)}(Y,A)$$

is an isomorphism for all local isomorphisms $f$.

This locality condition is in fact the descent condition: the sheaf has to descend from $Y$ down to $X$. More concretely, this condition is called a descent condition when evaluated on morphisms $f : Y \to X$ which are hypercovers:

namely if $\pi : Y^1 \to X$ is a local epimorphism with respect to the coverage that corresponds to the localization and if $\pi_2 : Y^2 \to Y^1 \times_X Y^1$ is a local epimorphism, then with

$$Y^\bullet := (Y^2 \rightrightarrows Y^1)$$

being the two canonical morphisms out of $Y^2$, it follows that the canonical morphism

$$colim Y^\bullet \to X$$

is a local isomorphism.

(This is exercise 16.6 in Categories and Sheaves).

Therefore for a presheaf $A$ to be a sheaf, it is necessary that

$$Hom_{PSh(S)}(X,A) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} Hom_{PSh(S)}(colim Y^\bullet, A)$$

is an isomorphism. The colimit may be taken out of the hom-functor to make this equivalently

$$Hom_{PSh(S)}(X,A) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} lim Hom_{PSh(S)}(Y^\bullet, A) \,.$$

It is convenient, suggestive and common to write $A(X) := Hom_{PSh(S)}(X,A)$, $A(Y^\bullet) := Hom_{PSh(S)}(Y^\bullet,A)$, following the spirit of the Yoneda lemma whether or not $X$ and/or $Y^\bullet$ are representable. In that notation the above finally becomes

$$A(X) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} lim A(Y^\bullet) \,.$$

This is the form of the condition that is most commonly called the descent condition.

Descent for simplicial presheaves

For more references and background on the following see descent for simplicial presheaves.

A well-studied class of models/presentations for an (∞,1)-category of (∞,1)-sheaves is obtained using the model structure on simplicial presheaves on an ordinary (1-categorical) site $S$, as follows.

Let $[S^{op}, SSet]$ be the SSet-enriched category of simplicial presheaves on $S$.

Recall from model structure on simplicial presheaves that there is the global and the local injective simplicial model structure on $[S^{op}, SSet]$ which makes it a simplicial model category and that the local model structure is a (Bousfield-)localization of the global model structure.

So in terms of simplicial presheaves the localization of an (∞,1)-category that we want to describe, namely ∞-stackification, is modeled as the localization of a simplicial model category?.

Recall that the (∞,1)-category modeled/presented by a simplicial model category is the full SSet-subcategory on fibrant-cofibrant objects. According to section 6.5.2 of HTT we have:

• the full simplicial subcategory on fibrant-cofibrant objects of $[S^{op}, SSet]$ with respect to the global injective model structure is (the SSet-enriched category realization of) the $(\infty,1)$-category $PSh_{(\infty,1)}(S)$ of (∞,1)-presheaves on $S$.

• the full simplicial subcategory on fibrant-cofibrant objects of $[S^{op}, SSet]$ with respect to the local injective model structure is (the SSet-enriched category realization of) the $(\infty,1)$-category $\bar{Sh}_{(\infty,1)}(S)$ which is the hypercompletion of the $(\infty,1)$-category $Sh_{(\infty,1)}(S)$ of (∞,1)-sheaves on $S$.

Since with respect to the local or global injective model structure all objects are automatically cofibrant, this means that $\bar Sh_{(\infty,1)}(S)$ is the full sub-$(\infty,1)$-category of $PSh_{(\infty,1)}(S)$ on simplicial presheaves which are fibrant with respect to the local injective model structure: these are the ∞-stacks in this model.

By the general properties of localization of an (∞,1)-category there should be a class of morphisms $f : Y \to X$ in $PSh_{(\infty,1)}(S)$ – hence between injective-fibrant objects in $[S^{op}, PSh(S)]$ – such that the simplicial presheaves representing $\infty$-stacks are precisely the local objects with respect to these morphisms.

The general idea of descent in this simplicial context is the precise analog of the situation for ordinary sheaves, but with ordinary (co)limits replaced everywhere with the (∞,1)-categorical (co)limits, which in terms of the presentation by the model structure on simplicial presheaves amounts to the homotopy (co)limit.

So for $Y \to X$ a morphism of simplicial presheaves, the condition that a simplicial presheaf $A$ is local with respect to it, hence satisfies descent with respect to it, is generally that

$$\begin{aligned} RHom(X,A) \stackrel{}{\to} & RHom(Y,A) \\ & \simeq RHom(hocolim_n Y_n, A) \\ & \simeq holim_n RHom(Y_n, A) \\ & =: holim_n A(Y_n) \end{aligned}$$

is a weak equivalence, where $RHom$ denotes the corresponding $(\infty,1)$-categorical hom, i.e. the derived hom with respect to the model structure on simplicial presheaves – for instance the ordinary simplicial hom if both $Y$ and $A$ are fibrant with respect to the given model structure.

The details on which morphisms $Y \to X$ one needs to check against here have been worked out in

• D. Dugger, S. Hollander, D. Isaksen, Hypercovers and simplicial presheaves (pdf)

We now describe central results of that article.

Definition

For $X \in S$ an object in the site regarded as a simplicial presheaf and $Y \in [S^{op}, SSet]$ a simplicial presheaf on $S$, a morphism $Y \to X$ is a hypercover if it is a local acyclic fibration, i.e. of for all $V \in S$ and all diagrams

$$\array{ \Lambda^k[n]\otimes V &\to & Y \\ \downarrow && \downarrow \\ \Delta^n\otimes V &\to& X } \;\; respectively \;\, \array{ \partial \Delta^n\otimes V &\to & Y \\ \downarrow && \downarrow \\ \Delta^n\otimes V &\to& X }$$

there exists a covering sieve $\{U_i \to V\}$ of $V$ with respect to the given Grothendieck topology on $S$ such that for every $U_i \to V$ in that sieve the pullback of the above diagram to $U$ has a lift

$$\array{ \Lambda^k[n]\otimes U_i &\to & Y \\ \downarrow &\nearrow & \downarrow \\ \Delta^n\otimes U_i &\to& X } \;\; respectively \;\, \array{ \partial \Delta^n\otimes U_i &\to & Y \\ \downarrow &\nearrow& \downarrow \\ \Delta^n\otimes U_i &\to& X } \,.$$

If $S$ is a Verdier site then every such hypercover $Y \to X$ has a refinement by a hypercover which is cofibrant with respect to the projective global model structure on simplicial presheaves. We shall from now on make the assumption that the hypercovers $Y \to X$ we discuss are cofibrant in this sense. These are called split hypercovers. (This works in many cases that arise in practice, see the discussion after DHI, def. 9.1.)

Proposition

The objects of $Sh_{(\infty,1)}(S)$ – i.e. the fibrant objects with respect to the projective model structure on $[S^{op}, SSet]$ – are precisely those objects $A$ of $PSh_{(\infty,1)}(S)$ – i.e. Kan complex-valued simplicial presheaves – which satisfy descent for all split hypercovers, i.e. those for which for all split hypercover $f : Y \to X$ in $[S^{op}, SSet]$ we have that

$$[S^{op}, SSet](X,A) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} [S^{op}, SSet](Y,A)$$

is a weak equivalence of simplicial sets.

Proof

This is DHI, thm 1.3 formulated in the light of DHI, lemma 4.4 (ii).

Notice that by the co-Yoneda lemma every simplicial presheaf $F : S^{op} \to SSet$, which we may regard as a presheaf $F : \Delta^{op}\times S^{op} \to Set$, is isomorphic to the weighted colimit

$$F \simeq colim^\Delta F_\bullet$$

which is equivalently the coend

$$F \simeq \int^{[n] \in \Delta} \Delta^n \cdot F_n \,,$$

where $F_n$ is the Set-valued presheaf of $n$-cells of $F$ regarded as an $SSet$-valued presheaf under the inclusion $Set \hookrightarrow SSet$, and where the SSet-weight is the canonical cosimplicial simplicial set $\Delta$, i.e. for all $X \in S$

$$F : X \mapsto \int^{[n] \in \Delta} \Delta^n \times F(X)_n \,.$$

In particular therefore for $A$ a Kan complex-valued presheaf the descent condition reads

$$[S^{op}, SSet](X,A) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} [S^{op}, SSet](colim^\Delta Y_\bullet,A) \simeq lim^\Delta [S^{op}, SSet](Y_\bullet,A) \,.$$

With the shorthand notation introduced above the descent condition finally reads, for all global-injective fibrant simplicial presheaves $A$ and hypercovers $U \to X$:

$$A(X) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} lim^\Delta A(Y_\bullet) \,.$$

The right hand here is often denoted $Desc(Y_\bullet \to X, A)$, in which case this reads

$$A(X) \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} Desc(Y_\bullet \to X, A) \,.$$

Descent for strict $\omega$-groupoid valued presheaves

While simplicial sets are a very convenient model for general reasoning about higher weak categories and ∞-groupoids, often concrete computations in particular with $(\infty)$-groupoids are more convenient in the context of more strictified models.

Notably, by the generalized Dold-Kan correspondence the $\omega$-nerve injects crossed complexes – nonabelian generalizations of chain complexes of abelian groups which are equivalent to strict ∞-groupoids – to simplicial sets

$$CrsCmplx \stackrel{\simeq}{\to} Str \omega Grpd \stackrel{N}{\to} SSet \,.$$

Since, for instance, something as simple as an abelian group $A$, regarded as a complex of groups in degree $n$ (hence as an $n$-group), is already a rather involved object to understand under the nerve operation,

it is desirable to have a means to control descent for simplicial presheaves which happen to factor through the $\omega$-nerve directly in the context of $Str \omega Cat$.

In his work on descent

• Ross Street, Categorical and combinatorial aspects of descent theory, arXiv:math.CT/0303175

Ross Street considered presheaves with values in strict ∞-categories

$$A : S^{op} \to Str \omega Cat$$

and declared the descent $\omega$-category with respect to a simplicial object $Y_\bullet : \Delta^{op} \to S$ to be the weighted limit in $Str\omega-Cat$-enriched category theory

$$lim^{F \Delta} A(U^\bullet) \,,$$

where $O := F \Delta : \Delta \to Str \omega Cat$ are the orientals, i.e. the free $\omega$-categories on the simplicial simplices

$$O = F \circ \Delta \,,$$

where $F : SSet \to Str\omega Cat$ is the right adjoint to the ∞-nerve $N : Str \omega Cat \to SSet$.

The two prescriptions

$$\array{ lim^\Delta N A(U^\bullet) & in SSet \\ \\ lim^{F \Delta} A(U^\bullet) & in Str \omega Grpd }$$

have a very similar appearance. The following theorem asserts if and when they are actually equivalent.

Theorem (Dominic Verity)

There exists a canonical comparison map

$$N(Desc_{Street}(U^\bullet, A)) := N(lim^{F \Delta} A(U^\bullet)) \;\;\;\stackrel{\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;}{\hookrightarrow}\;\;\; Desc_{simp}(U^\bullet, N \circ A) := holim_\bullet N(A(U^\bullet)) \,.$$

This is a weak equivalence of Kan complexes if the cosimplicial simplicial set $N(A(U^\bullet))$ is Reedy fibrant.

Proof

The full proof is given at Verity on descent for strict omega-groupoid valued presheaves.

Descent in terms of gluing conditions

We unwrap the expression

$$lim^\Delta A(Y_\bullet)$$

for the descent data for a presheaf $A$ with respect to a (hyper)cover $Y \to X$

This weighted limit (whether taken in $SSet$- or in $Str \omega Cat$-enriched category theory) is given by the coend

$$lim^W\Delta A(Y_\bullet) \simeq \int^{[n] \in \Delta} [\Delta^n, A(Y_n)] \,.$$

Unwrapping what this means one finds that an object/vertex of this is a choice of $n$-simplex in each $A(Y_n)$, subject to conditions which say that the boundary of this $n$-simplex must be obtained from pullback of $A$ along the maps $Y_n \to Y_{[n-1]}$ of the $(n-1)$-simplex in $A(Y_{n-1})$

Namely an object in

$lim^W\Delta A(Y_\bullet) \simeq \int^{[n] \in \Delta} [\Delta^n, A(Y_n)]$

is a commuting diagram

$$\array{ \uparrow &&&& \uparrow && \uparrow \\ [2] &&&& \Delta^2 &\stackrel{f}{\to}& A(Y_2) \\ \uparrow &&&& \uparrow && \uparrow \\ [1] &&&& \Delta^1 &\stackrel{g}{\to}& A(Y_1) \\ \uparrow &&&& \uparrow && \uparrow \\ [0] &&&& \Delta^0 &\stackrel{a}{\to}& A(Y_0) }$$

where the vertical arrows indicate all the simplicial maps of the cosimplicial objects $\Delta$ and $A(Y_\bullet)$.

So this is

• on $Y_0$ an object $a \in A(Y_0)$;

• on “double intersections” (might be a cover of double intersections) $Y_1$ a gluing isomorphism $g : \pi_1^* a \to \pi_2^* a$ which identifies the two copies of $a$ obtained by pullback along the two projection maps $\pi_1, \pi_2 : U \times_X U \to U$.

• on “triple intersections” $Y_2$ a gluing 2-isomorphism $\array{ && \pi_2^* a \\ & {}^{\pi_{12}^* g}\nearrow &\Downarrow^f& \searrow^{\pi_{23}^* g} \\ \pi_1^* a && \stackrel{\pi_{13}^* g}{\to} && \pi_3^* a }$ which identifies the different gluing 1-isomorphisms.

And so on.

Gluing for ordinary stacks

The article

• Sharon Hollander, A Homotopy Theory for Stacks (arXiv)

spells out how the familiar formulation of the descent condition for ordinary stacks is equivalent to the corresponding descent condition for simplicial presheaves, discussed above.

Codescent

Sometimes one wishes to compute the descent objects for presheaves of the form

$$[B(-), A] : S^{op} \to SSet \,,$$

where $B : S \to [S^{op}, SSet]$ is a given presheaf-valued co-presheaf. For instance in the context of differential nonabelian cohomology one is interested in the co-presheaf that assigns fundamental ∞-groupoids

$$B := \Pi : U \mapsto (V \mapsto S(V \times \Delta^\bullet, U))$$

in which case the presheaf

$$[\Pi(-),A]$$

would assign to $U \in S$ the pre-$\infty$-stack of “trivial $A$-principial bundles with flat connection”.

For $Y \to X$ a given (hyper)cover, the descent object for $[B(-), A]$ can be expressed as

$$\begin{aligned} Desc(Y_\bullet \to X, [B(-), A]) & := lim^\Delta [B(Y_\bullet),A] \\ & \simeq \int^{[n]\in \Delta} [ \Delta^n, [B(Y_n),A] ] \\ & \simeq \int^{[n]\in \Delta} [ \Delta^n \otimes B(Y_n), A] \\ & \simeq [\int_{[n] \in \Delta} \Delta^n \otimes B(Y_n)\;,\; A ] \\ & \simeq [colim^\Delta B(Y_\bullet), A] \end{aligned} \,.$$

This way the descent for $[B(-),A]$ on the object $U = colim^\Delta U_\bullet$ is reexpressed as descent for $A$ of the $B$-modified object $colim^\Delta B(Y_\bullet)$. Following Street, this we may call the codescent object, as it co-represents descent. See also pseudo-extranatural transformation.

Monadic descent

In some context the descent condition may algebraically be encoded in an adjunction. This leads to the notion of monadic descent. See there for more details.

Related concepts

• descent

  • cover

  • cohomological descent

  • fibered category, descent morphism

  • Bénabou-Roubaud theorem

  • monadic descent:

    • Sweedler coring, Amitsur complex,
    • higher monadic descent, descent in noncommutative algebraic geometry

  • van Kampen colimit

  • descent along a torsor, Schneider's descent theorem

• sheaf, (2,1)-sheaf, 2-sheaf (∞,1)-sheaf, stack

References

The original references:

• Alexander Grothendieck, Technique de descente et théorèmes d’existence en géométrie algébrique. I. Généralités. Descente par morphismes fidèlement plats, Séminaire N. Bourbaki exp. no190 (1960) 299-327 [numdam:SB_1958-1960__5__299_0]

• A. Grothendieck, M. Raynaud et al. Revêtements étales et groupe fondamental (SGA1), Lecture Notes in Mathematics 224, Springer 1971 (retyped as math.AG/0206203; published version Documents Mathématiques 3, Société Mathématique de France, Paris 2003)

• John Duskin, An outline of a theory of higher dimensional descent, Bull. de la Soc. Math. de Belgique 41 (1989) 249-277

• Angelo Vistoli, Grothendieck topologies, fibered categories and descent theory MR2223406; math.AG/0412512 pp. 1–104 in Barbara Fantechi, Lothar Göttsche, Luc Illusie, Steven L. Kleiman, Nitin Nitsure, Angelo Vistoli, Fundamental algebraic geometry. Grothendieck’s FGA explained, Mathematical Surveys and Monographs 123, Amer. Math. Soc. 2005. x+339 pp. MR2007f:14001

• Jacob Lurie, Descent Theorems

• Daniel Schäppi, Descent via Tannaka duality, arxiv/1505.05681

The connection between the concept of monadicity and descent is proved in:

• Jean Bénabou, Jacques Roubaud, Monades et descente, C. R. Acad. Sc. Paris, t. 270 (12 Janvier 1970), Serie A, 96–98, (link, Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Making good use of this connection, we have:

• George Janelidze, Walter Tholen, Facets of Descent III, Applied Categorical Structures 12 (2004) 461–-477

A survey, with lots of new results, of the categorical perspective on descent theory can be found in:

• George Janelidze, Manuela Sobral, Walter Tholen, Beyond Barr exactness: effective descent morphisms, Ch. 8 of Categ. Foundations, (eds. Maria Cristina Pedicchio, Walter Tholen) Enc. Math. Appl. 2003

Further developments with categorical perspectives and generalizations can be found in:

• George Janelidze, Walter Tholen, Facets of Descent II, Applied Categorical Structures 5:3 (1997) 229-248

• Ross Street, Categorical and combinatorial aspects of descent theory, arXiv:math.CT/0303175

• Fernando Lucatelli Nunes, Pseudo-Kan extensions and descent theory, 2018, TAC 33-15

• Renato Betti. Adjointness in descent theory, Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra 116.1-3 (1997): 41-47.