No Arabic abstract
We introduce acyclic polygraphs, a notion of complete categorical cellular model for (small) categories, containing generators, relations and higher-dimensional globular syzygies. We give a rewriting method to construct explicit acyclic polygraphs from convergent presentations. For that, we introduce higher-dimensional normalisation strategies, defined as homotopically coherent ways to relate each cell of a polygraph to its normal form, then we prove that acyclicity is equivalent to the existence of a normalisation strategy. Using acyclic polygraphs, we define a higher-dimensional homotopical finiteness condition for higher categories which extends Squiers finite derivation type for monoids. We relate this homotopical property to a new homological finiteness condition that we introduce here.
We generalize the notion of identities among relations, well known for presentations of groups, to presentations of n-categories by polygraphs. To each polygraph, we associate a track n-category, generalizing the notion of crossed module for groups, in order to define the natural system of identities among relations. We relate the facts that this natural system is finitely generated and that the polygraph has finite derivation type.
We study convergent (terminating and confluent) presentations of n-categories. Using the notion of polygraph (or computad), we introduce the homotopical property of finite derivation type for n-categories, generalizing the one introduced by Squier for word rewriting systems. We characterize this property by using the notion of critical branching. In particular, we define sufficient conditions for an n-category to have finite derivation type. Through examples, we present several techniques based on derivations of 2-categories to study convergent presentations by 3-polygraphs.
We develop some basic concepts in the theory of higher categories internal to an arbitrary $infty$-topos. We define internal left and right fibrations and prove a version of the Grothendieck construction and of Yonedas lemma for internal categories.
We survey Lawvere theories at the level of infinity categories, as an alternative framework for higher algebra (rather than infinity operads). From a pedagogical perspective, they make many key definitions and constructions less technical. They are also better-suited than operads for equivariant homotopy theory and its relatives. Our main result establishes a universal property for the infinity category of Lawvere theories, which completely characterizes the relationship between a Lawvere theory and its infinity category of models. Many familiar properties of Lawvere theories follow directly. As a consequence, we prove that the Burnside category is a classifying object for additive categories, as promised in an earlier paper, and as part of a more general correspondence between enriched Lawvere theories and module Lawvere theories.
We generalize toposic Galois theory to higher topoi. We show that locally constant sheaves in a locally (n-1)-connected n-topos are equivalent to representations of its fundamental pro-n-groupoid, and that the latter can be described in terms of Galois torsors. We also show that finite locally constant sheaves in an arbitrary infinity-topos are equivalent to finite representations of its fundamental pro-infinity-groupoid. Finally, we relate the fundamental pro-infinity-groupoid of 1-topoi to the construction of Artin and Mazur and, in the case of the etale topos of a scheme, to its refinement by Friedlander.