We establish an equivalence of homotopy theories between symmetric monoidal bicategories and connective spectra. For this, we develop the theory of $Gamma$-objects in 2-categories. In the course of the proof we establish strictfication results of independent interest for symmetric monoidal bicategories and for diagrams of 2-categories.
This paper proves three different coherence theorems for symmetric monoidal bicategories. First, we show that in a free symmetric monoidal bicategory every diagram of 2-cells commutes. Second, we show that this implies that the free symmetric monoidal bicategory on one object is equivalent, as a symmetric monoidal bicategory, to the discrete symmetric monoidal bicategory given by the disjoint union of the symmetric groups. Third, we show that every symmetric monoidal bicategory is equivalent to a strict one. We give two topological applications of these coherence results. First, we show that the classifying space of a symmetric monoidal bicategory can be equipped with an E_{infty} structure. Second, we show that the fundamental 2-groupoid of an E_n space, n geq 4, has a symmetric monoidal structure. These calculations also show that the fundamental 2-groupoid of an E_3 space has a sylleptic monoidal structure.
