From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/1782 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eugenia Cheng Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: preprints: higher-dimensional categories Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 15:13:24 +0000 (GMT) Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1241018099 421 80.91.229.2 (29 Apr 2009 15:14:59 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:14:59 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: rrosebru@mta.ca Wed Jan 10 15:42:37 2001 -0400 Return-Path: Original-Received: (from Majordom@localhost) by mailserv.mta.ca (8.11.1/8.11.1) id f0AJ2wh28496 for categories-list; Wed, 10 Jan 2001 15:02:58 -0400 (AST) X-Authentication-Warning: mailserv.mta.ca: Majordom set sender to cat-dist@mta.ca using -f X-Sender: elgc2@yellow.csi.cam.ac.uk Original-Sender: cat-dist@mta.ca Precedence: bulk X-Keywords: X-UID: 13 Original-Lines: 80 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:1782 Archived-At: The following papers are available at my website: [1] The relationship between the opetopic and multitopic approaches to weak n-categories [2] Equivalence between approaches to the theory of opetopes These papers cover the work I presented at PSSL 73 in Braunschweig, and CT2000 in Como. The following paper covers the work I presented at PSSL 74 in Cambridge: [3] Equivalence between the opetopic and classical approaches to bicategories This currently has hand-drawn diagrams and so is available only on paper; I will be happy to send copies to anyone interested. The website is http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~elgc2 Summaries follow below. Thank you, Eugenia Cheng The problem of defining a weak n-category has been approached in various ways, but so far the relationship between these approaches has not been fully understood. The subject of the above papers is the approaches given by Baez/Dolan, Hermida/Makkai/Power and Leinster ([BD, HMP, Lei]); we exhibit a relationship between them. In each case the definition has two components. First, the language for describing k-cells is set up. Then, a concept of universality is introduced, to deal with composition and coherence. Any comparison of these approaches must therefore begin at the construction of k-cells. This, in the language of Baez/Dolan, is the theory of opetopes. Hermida, Makkai and Power use an analogous construction of 'multitopes'. In [1] we exhibit a relationship between the constructions of opetopes and multitopes. In [2] we exhibit a relationship between Baez/Dolan opetopes and Leinster opetopes. It must be pointed out that we do not use the opetopic definitions precisely as given in [BD], but rather, we develop a generalisation along lines which Baez and Dolan began but chose to abandon, for reasons unknown to the present author. Baez and Dolan work with operads having an arbitrary *set* of types (objects), but at the beginning of the paper they use operads having an arbitrary *category* of objects, before restricting to the case where the category of objects is small and discrete. In fact, the use of a *category* of objects is a crucial aspect of our work. The morphisms in this category keep account of the successive layers of symmetry arising from the Baez/Dolan use of symmetric operads. Abandoning this information destroys the relationship between the approaches; by retaining it, a clear relationship can be seen. In [3] we begin to examine the complete opetopic definition of weak n-category, with the modifications necessitated by our previous work. We show how this modified definition is equivalent to the classical definitions for n <= 2. REFERENCES [BD] John Baez and James Dolan. Higher-dimensional algebra III: n-categories and the algebra of opetopes. Adv. Math., 135(2):145--206, 1998. Also available via http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez. [HMP] Claudio Hermida, Michael Makkai, and John Power. On weak higher dimensional categories, 1997. Available via http://triples.math.mcgill.ca. [Lei] Tom Leinster. Structures in higher-dimensional category theory, 1998. Available via http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~leinster