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We had defined categories of sheaves with values in Set as geometric embeddings into categories of presheaves and noticed that
these are the homotopy categories of presheaf categories with respect to hypercovers/local isomorphisms;
and that a morphism of sheaves is an isomorphism precisely if on each stalk it is an isomorphism of sets (i.e. a bijection of sets).
Following our motivation for sheaves, cohomology and higher stacks we want to pass now to presheaves that assign to an object not just a set, but something that behaves like a topological space, namely an infinity-groupoid.
Here now we describe infinity-groupoids in terms of their standard model in terms of simplicial sets that satisfy the Kan condition.
In particular we discuss the homotopical structure on -groupoids, identifying the morphisms between them that are weak equivalences in that they should be regarded as invertible in a homotopical sense. This involves the standard notions of
that we discuss.
With this in hand we can then in the next installment give a simple definition of the homotopy category of infinity-stacks:
The construction and discussion of this homotopy category of -stacks is facilitated by realizing that it comes equipped with a structure that refines that of the multiplicative systems that we have seen before, namely that of a Brown category of fibrant objects. This is a structure similar to but more lightweight than the full model category structure on simplicial sheaves which we will not need to discuss here.
Following our general outline in motivation for sheaves, cohomology and higher stacks we want to look at sheaves with values not in Set but with values in nice topological spaces that can be modeled as infinity-groupoids.
A general way to handle infinity-groupoids is in terms of simplicial sets.
Recall the following definitions from our previous discussion:
the simplex category is the full subcategory of Cat on linear quivers, i.e. on categories freely generated on finite, non-empty linear graphs:
The collection of all functors between linear quivers
is generated from those that map almost all generating morphisms to another generating morphism, except at one position, where they
coface maps: is the injection missing , i.e. the functor that maps a single generating morphism to the composite of two generating morphisms
codegeneracy maps: is the surjection such that , i.e. the functor that maps one generating morphism to an identity morphism
These morphism generate subject to the following relations, called the simplicial relations
A simplicial set is a presheaf on .
The images of the morphisms and under a given simplicial set give the face and boundary maps, that satisfy the simplicial identities
if ,
can be written as
if .
We will get further intuition on the meaning and inner workins of simplicial sets from the following constructions and examples.
Recall also that, being a category of presheaves, there is canonically the cartesian closed monoidal structure on presheaves on SSet whose product is the objectwise product of sets:
Every category gives rise to a simplicial set: its nerve.
Definition
Recall that the simplex category is equivalent to the full subcategory
of Cat on linear quivers, meaning that the object can be identified with the category . The morphisms of are all functors between these “linear quiver” categories.
For any locally small category, the nerve of is the simplicial set given by
where Cat is regarded as an ordinary 1-category with objects locally small categories, and morphisms being functors between these.
So the set of -simplices of the nerve is the set of functors . This is clearly the same as the set of sequences of composable morphisms in of length :
It follows that, for instance
for the image under is obtained by composing the first two morphisms in this sequence:
for the image under is obtained by inserting an identity morphism: .
In this way, generally the face and degeneracy maps of the nerve of a category come from composition of morphisms and from inserting identity morphisms.
In particular in light of their generalization to nerves of higher categories, discussed below, the cells in the nerve have the following interpretation:
is the collection of objects of ;
is the collection of morphisms of ;
is the collection of composable morphisms in : the 2-cell itself is to be read as the composition operation, which is unique for an ordinary category (there is just one way to compose to morphisms);
is the collection of triples of composable morphisms, to be read as the unique associators that relate one way to compose three morphisms using the above 2-cells to the other way.
A simplicial set is the nerve of a locally small category if and only if all the commuting squares
are pullback diagrams.
Unwrapping this definition inductively in , this says that a simplicial set is the nerve of a category if and only if all its cells in degree are unique compositors, associators, pentagonators, etc of composition of 1-morphisms. No non-trivial such structure cells appear and no further higher cells appear.
This characterization of categories in terms of nerves directly leads to the model of (infinity,1)-category in terms of complete Segal spaces by replacing in the above discussion sets by topological spaces (or something similar, like Kan complexes) and pullbacks by homotopy pullbacks.
So functors between locally small categories are in bijections with morphisms of simplicial sets between their nerves.
In particular, when is a discrete group, then the geometric realization of the nerve of is the classifying topological space for -principal bundles.
We want to understand special properties of simplicial sets that arise as nerves of groupoids. In order to do so we need the concepts of boundaries and horns of simplices, and notion of Kan complex derived from that.
In as far as the simplicial -simplex (a simplicial set) is a combinatorial model for the -ball, its boundary is a combinatorial model for the -sphere.
Definition
The boundary of the simplicial -simplex is the simplicial set generated from the simplicial set minus its unique non-degenerate cell in dimension .
Regarding as the presheaf on on the simplex category that is represented by , then this means that is the simplicial set generated from minus the identity morphism .
There is a canonical monomorphism
the boundary inclusion .
The geometric realization of this is the inclusion of the -sphere as the boundary of the -disk.
Simplicial boundary inclusions are one part of the cofibrant generation of the classical model structure on simplicial sets.
For low the boundaries of -simplices look like (see also the illustrations at oriental)
;
;
The horn is the simplicial set obtained from the boundary of the n-simplex of the standard simplicial -simplex by discarding the th face.
Definition
Let
be the standard simplicial -simplex in SimpSet.
Then, for each , , we can form, within , a subsimplicial set, , called the -horn or -box, by discarding the top dimensional non-degenerate -simplex (given by the identity map on ) and its face. We must also discard all the degeneracies of those simplices.
The horn is an outer horn if or .
Examples
The inner horn of the 2-simplex
with boundary
looks like
The two outer horns look like
and
respectively.
A Kan fibration is a morphism of simplicial sets with the lifting property for all horn inclusions.
This means that for
a commuting square, there always exists a lift
Kan fibrations are combinatorial analogs of Serre fibrations of topological spaces. In fact, under the Quillen equivalence of the standard model structure on topological spaces and the standard model structure on simplicial sets, Kan fibrations map to Serre fibrations.
Recall the shape of the horns in low dimension.
-- The horns and of the 1-simplex are just copies of the 0-simplex regarded as the left and right endpoint of . For the above condition says that for a Kan fibration we have
corresponding to the lifting diagram
-- the horn consists of the two top sides of a triangle. For this the Kan condition says that for any two composable 1-cells in that have a “composite up to a 2-cell” in , there exists a corresponding “composite up to a 2-cell” in that projects down to the one in :
This corresponds to the lifting diagram
instance for the horn the picture is $$
Kan complexes
A Kan complex is a geometric model of an -groupoid based on the shape modeled by the simplex category.
Definition
A Kan complex is a simplicial set that satisfies the Kan condition,
which says that all horns of the simplicial set have fillers,
which means equivalently that the unique morphism from to the point is a Kan fibration,
which means equivalently that for all diagrams
there exists a diagonal morphism
This in turn means equivalently that the map from -simplices to -horns is an epimorphism
Remarks
Kan complexes are among the most convenient and popular models for infinity-groupoids. The horn filling condition from this point of view is read as guaranteeing that
Whatever other definition of infinity-groupoid one considers, it is expected to map to a Kan complex under the nerve.
A slight weakening of the Kan condition, the weak Kan condition leads to the definition of quasi-category.
Examples of Kan complexes
The nerve of a locally small category is a Kan complex if and only if is a groupoid.
The existence of inverse morphisms in corresponds to the fact that in the Kan complex the “outer” horns
have fillers
(even unique fillers, due to the above).
It is in this sense that a simplicial set that is a Kan complex but which does not necessarily have the above pullback property that makes it a nerve of an ordinary groupoid models an infinity-groupoid.
fundamental -groupoid of a topological space
For a topological space, its singular simplicial complex is the simplicial set (often denoted ) whose set of -simplices is the hom-set
in Top of continuous maps from the standard topological -simplex into .
Using the fact that the arrange themselves into a cosimplicial space
in the obvious way, the become a simplicial set in the corresponding obvious way. For instance the face maps are induced by restricting maps to along the face inclusions .
That is indeed a Kan complex is intuitively clear. Technically it follows from the fact that the inclusions of topological horns into tolological simplices are retracts.
The infinity-groupoid represented by the Kan complex is the fundamental infinity-groupoid of .
A simplicial homotopy is a homotopy in the classical model structure on simplicial sets.
Definition
SSet has a cylinder functor given by cartesian product with the standard 1-simplex .
Therefore for two morphisms of simplicial sets, a homotopy is a morphism such that the diagram
commutes.
Since Kan complexes are precisely the fibrant objects with respect to the standard model structure on simplicial sets this follows from general statements about homotopy in model categories.
The following is a direct proof.
We first show that the homotopy between points is an equivalence relation when is a Kan complex.
We identify in the following and with vertices in the image of these maps.
-reflexivity- For every vertex , the degenerate 1-simplex has, by the simplicial identities, 0-faces and .
Therefore the morphism that takes the unique non-degenerate 1-simplex in to constitutes a homotopy from to itself.
-transitivity- let and in be 1-cells. Together they determine a map from the horn to ,
By the Kan complex property there is an extension of this morphism through the 2-simplex
If we again identify with its image (the image of its unique non-degenerate 2-cell) in , then using the simplicial identities we find
that the 1-cell boundary bit in turn has 0-cell boundaries
and
This means that is a homotopy .
-symmetry- In a similar manner, suppose that is a 1-cell in that constitutes a homotopy from to . Let be the degenerate 1-cell on . Since together they define a map which by the Kan property of we may extend to a map
on the full 2-simplex.
Now the 1-cell boundary has, using the simplicial identities, 0-cell boundaries
and
and hence yields a homotopy . So being homotopic is a symmetric relation on vertices in a Kan complex.
Finally we use the fact that SSet is a cartesian closed category to deduce from this statements about vertices the corresponding statement for all map:
a morphism is the Hom-adjunct of a morphism , and a homotopy is the adjunct of a morphism . Therefore homotopies are in bijection with homotopies .
Recall that a Kan complex is a special simplicial set that behaves like a combinatorial model for a sufficiently nice topological space.
The simplicial homotopy groups of a Kan complex are accordingly the combinatorial analog of the homotopy groups of topological spaces: instead of being maps from topological spheres modulo maps from topological disks, they are maps from the boundary of a simplex modulo those from the simplex itself.
Accordingly, the definition of the discussion of simplicial homotopy groups is essentially literally the same as that of ordinary homotopy groups. One technical difference is for instance that the definition of the group structure is slightly more non-immediate for simplicial homotopy groups than for topological homotopy groups (see below).
As for ordinary homotopy groups, an th simplicial homotopy ‘group’ is really an -tuply groupal -groupoid. That is, for , it is not a group at all but rather a pointed set; for , it is a group; and for , it is an abelian group. On the other hand, we could drop the base vertex and move to the th simplicial homotopy ‘groupoid’, which is really an -groupoid.
Definition
For a Kan complex
the th simplicial homotopy groupoid is the discrete groupoid on the set of connected components of , i.e. on the set of equivalence classes of 0-cells under simplicial homotopy;
for every and the th simplicial homotopy group of at to be the set
of equivalence classes of morphisms
from the simplicial -simplex to ,
meaning that all of the boundary of maps to the single point ;
where two such maps are taken to be equivalent is they are related by a simplicial homotopy
that fixes the boundary
These pointed sets are taken to be equipped with the following group structure.
Let . For two representatives of , define the following -simplices in :
This is designed such that it yields a morphism from a horn of the -simplex into . By the Kan complex property of this morphism has an extension through the -simplex
From the simplicial identities one finds that the boundary of the -simplex arising as the th boundary piece of is constant on
So represents an element in and we define the product operation by
Remark: All the degenerate -simplices above are just there so that the gluing of the two -cells and to each other can be regarded as forming the boundary of an -simplex except for one face. BY the Kan extension property that missing face exists, namely . This is a choice of gluing composite of with .
The above product on homotopy group elements is indeed well defined, in that it is independent of the choice of representatives , and of the extension .
For all the groups are abelian.
weak homotopy equivalences of Kan simplicial sets
For and fibrant simplicial sets, i.e. Kan complexes, a morphism is a weak equivalence with respect to the classical model structure on simplicial sets if
and
are isomorphisms for all choices of base vertex .
In particular a functor of groupoids is a equivalence of categories if under the nerve it induces a weak equivalence of Kan complexes:
The morphisms of Kan complexes that are both Kan fibrations as well as weak equivalences in that they induce isomorphisms on all simplicial homotopy groups (i.e. the acyclic fibrations of Kan complexes) are precisely the morphisms that have the right lifting property with respect to all boundary inclusions :
A proof is in chapter I of
Let be ordinary groupoids and , their ordinary nerves. We’d like to show in detail that
A functor is
We know that both and are Kan complexes. By the above theorem it suffices to show that being a surjective equivalence is the same as having all lifts
We check successively what this means for increasing :
. In degree 0 the boundary inclusion is that of the empty set into the point . The lifting property in this case amounts to saying that every point in lifts through .
This precisely says that is surjective on 0-cells and hence that is surjective on objects.
. In degree 1 the boundary inclusion is that of a pair of points as the endpoints of the interval . The lifting property here evidently is equivalent to saying that for all objects all elements in are hit. Hence that is a full functor.
. In degree 2 the boundary inclusion is that of the triangle as the boundary of a filled triangle. It is sufficient to restrict attention to the case that the map sends the top left edge of the triangle to an identity. Then the lifting property here evidently is equivalent to saying that for all objects the map is injective. Hence that is a faithful functor.
The 1-category of Kan complexes equipped with the information of which morphisms are fibrations (namely Kan fibrations) and which are weak equivalences (namely those inducing isomorphisms on simplicial homotopy groups) forms a flavor of homotopical category which is a
Definition
A category of fibrant objects is a category with weak equivalences equipped with a further subcollection of its collection of morphisms called fibrations. (As usual, those morphisms which are both weak equivalences and fibrations are called acyclic fibrations.)
This data has to satisfy the following properties:
has finite products;
has a terminal object;
fibrations are preserved under pullback;
acyclic fibrations are preserved under pullback;
for every object there exists a path object , namely a diagram
with a weak equivalence and a fibration;
all objects are fibrant, i.e. all morphisms to the terminal object are fibrations.
The path object of any can be chosen to be the internal hom
The stability of fibrations and acyclic fibrations follows from the above fact that both are characterized by a right lifting property, by the following standard lemma
A class morphisms satisfying a right lifting property with respect to some class of morphisms is preserved under pullback.
Let be in and and let
be a pullback diagram. We need to show that has the right lifting property with respect to all in . So let
be any commuting square. We need to construct a diagonal lift of that square. To that end, first compose with the pullback square from above to obtain the commuting diagram
By the right lifting property of , there is a diagonal lift of the total outer diagram
By the pullback property this gives rise to the lift in
In order for to qualify as the intended lift of the total diagram, it remains to show that
commutes. To do so we notice that we obtain two pullback cones with tip :
one is given by the morphisms
with universal morphism into the pullback being
the other by
with universal morphism into the pullback being
The commutativity of the diagrams that we have established so far shows that the first and second morphisms here equal each other, respectively. By the fact that the universal morphism into a pullback diagram is unique this implies the required identity of morphisms.
Last revised on June 30, 2009 at 16:16:33. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.