We define a model structure on the category GCat of small categories with an action by a finite group G by lifting the Thomason model structure on Cat. We show there is a Quillen equivalence between GCat with this model structure and GTop with the standard model structure.
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 monoida
l 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.
We show how to construct a Gamma-bicategory from a symmetric monoidal bicategory, and use that to show that the classifying space is an infinite loop space upon group completion. We also show a way to relate this construction to the classic Gamma-cat
egory construction for a bipermutative category. As an example, we use this machinery to construct a delooping of the K-theory of a bimonoidal category as defined by Baas-Dundas-Rognes.
Ganter and Kapranov associated a 2-character to 2-representations of a finite group. Elgueta classified 2-representations in the category of 2-vector spaces 2Vect_k in terms of cohomological data. We give an explicit formula for the 2-character in te
rms of this cohomological data and derive some consequences.
