English

Opetopes and chain complexes

Category Theory 2012-09-24 v2

Abstract

We give a simple algebraic description of opetopes in terms of chain complexes, and we show how this description is related to combinatorial descriptions in terms of treelike structures. More generally, we show that the chain complexes associated to higher categories generate graphlike structures. The algebraic description gives a relationship between the opetopic approach and other approaches to higher category theory. It also gives an easy way to calculate the sources and targets of opetopes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1204.6723,
  title  = {Opetopes and chain complexes},
  author = {Richard Steiner},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1204.6723},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

20 pages. Revised version has an extra figure

R2 v1 2026-06-21T20:56:45.947Z