Stable Postnikov data of Picard 2-categories


Abstract in English

Picard 2-categories are symmetric monoidal 2-categories with invertible 0-, 1-, and 2-cells. The classifying space of a Picard 2-category $mathcal{D}$ is an infinite loop space, the zeroth space of the $K$-theory spectrum $Kmathcal{D}$. This spectrum has stable homotopy groups concentrated in levels 0, 1, and 2. In this paper, we describe part of the Postnikov data of $Kmathcal{D}$ in terms of categorical structure. We use this to show that there is no strict skeletal Picard 2-category whose $K$-theory realizes the 2-truncation of the sphere spectrum. As part of the proof, we construct a categorical suspension, producing a Picard 2-category $Sigma C$ from a Picard 1-category $C$, and show that it commutes with $K$-theory in that $KSigma C$ is stably equivalent to $Sigma K C$.

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