A Higher Structure Identity Principle
Abstract
The ordinary Structure Identity Principle states that any property of set-level structures (e.g., posets, groups, rings, fields) definable in Univalent Foundations is invariant under isomorphism: more specifically, identifications of structures coincide with isomorphisms. We prove a version of this principle for a wide range of higher-categorical structures, adapting FOLDS-signatures to specify a general class of structures, and using two-level type theory to treat all categorical dimensions uniformly. As in the previously known case of 1-categories (which is an instance of our theory), the structures themselves must satisfy a local univalence principle, stating that identifications coincide with "isomorphisms" between elements of the structure. Our main technical achievement is a definition of such isomorphisms, which we call "indiscernibilities", using only the dependency structure rather than any notion of composition.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2004.06572,
title = {A Higher Structure Identity Principle},
author = {Benedikt Ahrens and Paige Randall North and Michael Shulman and Dimitris Tsementzis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.06572},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
Long version of publication in LICS 2020 (DOI: 10.1145/3373718.3394755); v2: added sections "Axioms and Theories" and "Version History", other minor changes; v3: added examples