English

Weak cartesian properties of simplicial sets

Category Theory 2024-03-05 v2 Algebraic Topology

Abstract

Many special classes of simplicial sets, such as the nerves of categories or groupoids, the 2-Segal sets of Dyckerhoff and Kapranov, and the (discrete) decomposition spaces of G\'{a}lvez, Kock, and Tonks, are characterized by the property of sending certain commuting squares in the simplex category Δ\Delta to pullback squares of sets. We introduce weaker analogues of these properties called completeness conditions, which require squares in Δ\Delta to be sent to weak pullbacks of sets, defined similarly to pullback squares but without the uniqueness property of induced maps. We show that some of these completeness conditions provide a simplicial set with lifts against certain subsets of simplices first introduced in the theory of database design. We also provide reduced criteria for checking these properties using factorization results for pushouts squares in Δ\Delta, which we characterize completely, along with several other classes of squares in Δ\Delta. Examples of simplicial sets with completeness conditions include quasicategories, many of the compositories and gleaves of Flori and Fritz, and bar constructions for algebras of certain classes of monads. The latter is our motivating example.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2105.04775,
  title  = {Weak cartesian properties of simplicial sets},
  author = {Carmen Constantin and Tobias Fritz and Paolo Perrone and Brandon Shapiro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2105.04775},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

48 pages. This work arose out of the 2019 Applied Category Theory Adjoint School. v2: Minor edits and corrections based on reviewer and editorial feedback. Formerly part of arXiv:2009.07302v2

R2 v1 2026-06-24T01:58:18.946Z