# Contents

## Idea

The concept of $(\infty, 1)$-profunctor plays the role of profunctor in (∞,1)-category theory.

## Definition

If $C$ and $D$ are (∞,1)-categories, then a profunctor from $C$ to $D$ is a (∞,1)-functor of the form

$F \colon D^{op}\times C \to \infty Grpd \,.$

Such a profunctor is usually written as $F\colon C ⇸ D$. Composition of (∞,1)-profunctors in (∞,1)Prof is by the “tensor product of (∞,1)-functors” homotopy coend construction: if $H\colon A ⇸ B$ and $K\colon B ⇸ C$, their composite is given as a functor $C^{op}\times A \to \infty Grpd$ by

$(c,a)\mapsto \int^{b\in B} H(b,a)\times K(c,b).$

Every (∞,1)-functor $f\colon C\to D$ induces two (∞,1)-profunctors $D(1,f)\colon C ⇸ D$ and $D(f,1)\colon D ⇸ C$, defined by $D(1,f)(d,c) = D(d,f(c))$ and $D(f,1)(c,d) = D(f(c),d)$. (Here $D(-,-)$ denotes the hom functor of $D$ and $1$ denotes the identity (∞,1)-functor on the respective category.)

Since a profunctor is also known as a (bi)module or a distributor or a correspondence, we should expect other names to be used for $(\infty, 1)$-profunctor. In Higher Topos Theory (Definition 2.3.1.3), Lurie speaks of a correspondence.

## References

Last revised on August 25, 2017 at 03:12:09. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.