English

Lax functorialities of the comma construction for $\omega$-categories

Category Theory 2026-01-14 v3

Abstract

Motivated by the Grothendieck construction, we study the functorialities of the comma construction for strict ω\omega-categories. To state the most general functorialities, we use the language of Gray ω\omega-categories, that is, categories enriched in the category of strict ω\omega-categories endowed with the oplax Gray tensor product. Our main result is that the comma construction of strict ω\omega-categories defines a Gray ω\omega-functor, that is, a morphism of Gray ω\omega-categories. To makes sense of this statement, we prove that slices of Gray ω\omega-categories exist. Coming back to the Grothendieck construction, we propose a definition in terms of the comma construction and, as a consequence, we get that the Grothendieck construction of strict ω\omega-categories defines a Gray ω\omega-functor. Finally, as a by-product, we get a notion of Grothendieck construction for Gray ω\omega-functors, which we plan to investigate in future work.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.08832,
  title  = {Lax functorialities of the comma construction for $\omega$-categories},
  author = {Dimitri Ara and Léonard Guetta},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.08832},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

62 pages, v2: revised according to referee's comments, numbering has changed, new Appendix A, v3: very minor modifications, journal version