Discussion of Homotopy Type Theory and Univalent Foundations
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From: "Licata, Dan" <dlicata@wesleyan.edu>
To: "Anders Mörtberg" <andersmortberg@gmail.com>
Cc: Homotopy Type Theory <HomotopyTypeTheory@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [HoTT] Different definitions of Sn
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 16:27:05 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <DBF368F2-295C-4175-93F2-1EA01D49B95D@wesleyan.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <db712ad2-396f-4328-bb73-898dcb956834@googlegroups.com>

Thanks Anders.  To be clear, I don’t think we have any schemas or semantics of HITs that accept this definition of S^n (with an n-loop for an internally-specified n) in any non-cubical settings either; at the time, I was thinking of it more as exploring what you can do with the definition.  Proving the two definitions equivalent should be the same (modulo which definitional equalities you get) as implementing the one-n-loop rules in terms of suspensions, so that would be one way to justify these rules.  

Also, the proof of pi_n(S^n) = Z that Guillaume mentioned, which predated Freudenthal, is a lot more work than the one that you get from Freudenthal, so I’m not sure we have any motivating examples for why the one-n-loop definition is better than the suspension definition for arbitrary n.  

-Dan

> On Sep 18, 2019, at 8:00 AM, Anders Mörtberg <andersmortberg@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Let me elaborate a bit on my answer. One might naively try to copy Dan and Guillaume's definition and write the following in Cubical Agda:
> 
> 
> Omega : (A : Type₀) → A → Type₀
> Omega A a = (a ≡ a)
> 
> itOmega : ℕ → (A : Type₀) → A → Type₀
> itOmega zero A a = Omega A a
> itOmega (suc n) A a = itOmega n (Omega A a) refl
> 
> data Sn (n : ℕ) : Type₀ where
>   base : Sn n
>   surf : itOmega n (Sn n) base
> 
> 
> However Agda will complain as surf is not constructing an element of Sn. This might seem a bit funny as Cubical Agda is perfectly happy with
> 
> 
> data S³ : Type₀ where 
>   base : S³ 
>   surf : Path (Path (base ≡ base) refl refl) refl refl 
> 
> 
> But what is happening under the hood is that surf is a constructor taking i, j, and k in the interval and returning an element of S^3 with boundary "base" whenever i, j and k are 0 or 1. In cubicaltt we can write this HIT in the following way:
> 
> 
> data S3 = base
>  | surf <i j k> [ (i=0) -> base
>                 , (i=1) -> base
>                 , (j=0) -> base
>                 , (j=1) -> base
>                 , (k=0) -> base
>                 , (k=1) -> base ]
> 
> 
> The problem is then clearer: in order to write the surf constructor of Sn we would have to quantify over n interval variables and specify the boundary of the n-cell. This is what that is not supported by any of the cubical schemas for HITs.
> 
> --
> Anders
> 
> On Wednesday, September 18, 2019 at 11:00:22 AM UTC+2, Guillaume Brunerie wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> We give a definition of S^n with one point and one n-loop by 
> introduction/elimination/reduction rules in our paper with Dan Licata 
> (https://guillaumebrunerie.github.io/pdf/lb13cpp.pdf), which can be 
> implemented in Agda (so Kristina’s question can be formulated and can 
> presumably be formalized in Agda) but I don’t think we actually proved 
> it. 
> 
> Best, 
> Guillaume 
> 
> Den ons 18 sep. 2019 kl 10:32 skrev Anders Mortberg <andersm...@gmail.com>: 
> > 
> > Hi Kristina, 
> > 
> > We have proofs for S^0, S^1, S^2 and S^3 in Cubical Agda: 
> > https://github.com/agda/cubical/blob/master/Cubical/HITs/Susp/Base.agda 
> > 
> > However, I don't think we can even write down the general version of 
> > S^n as a type with a point and an n-loop with the schema implemented 
> > in Cubical Agda. As far as I know no other schema for HITs support 
> > this kind of types either. 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Anders 
> > 
> > On Tue, Sep 17, 2019 at 9:56 PM Kristina Sojakova 
> > <sojakova...@gmail.com> wrote: 
> > > 
> > > Hello everybody, 
> > > 
> > > Is it worked out somewhere that the two definitions of Sn as a 
> > > suspension on one hand and a HIT with a point and an n-loop on the other 
> > > hand are equivalent? This is also an exercise in the book. I know 
> > > Favonia has some Agda code on spheres but I couldn't find this result in 
> > > there. 
> > > 
> > > Thanks, 
> > > 
> > > Kristina 
> > > 
> > > 
> 
> -- 
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  reply	other threads:[~2019-09-18 16:27 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2019-09-17 19:56 Kristina Sojakova
2019-09-18  8:32 ` Anders Mortberg
2019-09-18  9:00   ` Guillaume Brunerie
2019-09-18 12:00     ` Anders Mörtberg
2019-09-18 16:27       ` Licata, Dan [this message]
2019-09-18 19:19         ` Michael Shulman

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