nLab
simplicially enriched category

Contents

Definition

A simplicially enriched category is a category enriched over the cartesian monoidal category sSet of simplicial sets.

These enriched categories are sometimes, somewhat imprecisely, called just simplicial categories.

There is a related notion of simplicial groupoid with the added requirement that all arrows in the categories concerned are isomorphisms.

As models for (,1)-categories

Since simplicial sets that are Kan complexes are an incarnation of ∞-groupoids, an sSet-category all whose hom-objects happen to be Kan complexes may be regarded as a category enriched in ∞-groupoids. By the logic of (n,r)-category theory this should be a model for an (∞,1)-category.

Treating simplicial categories tis way as models for (,1)-categories is one of the central tools in homotopy coherent category theory.

Indeed, there is a model structure on simplicial categories whose fibrant objects are Kan-complex enriched categories, and which is one model for the (∞,1)-category of (∞,1)-categories.

By a web of Quillen equivalences this is related to the other incarnations of (,1)-categories. Notably to quasi-categories and complete Segal spaces. For more on this see