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We define Homotopy quantum field theories (HQFT) as Topological quantum field theories (TQFT) for manifolds endowed with extra structure in the form of a map into some background space X. We also build the category of homotopy cobordisms…

We construct a category $\mathrm{HomCob}$ whose objects are {\it homotopically 1-finitely generated} topological spaces, and whose morphisms are {\it cofibrant cospans}. Given a manifold submanifold pair $(M,A)$, we prove that there exists…

This note extends Quillen's Theorem A to a large class of categories internal to topological spaces. This allows us to show that under a mild condition a fully faithful and essentially surjective functor between such topological categories…

Motivated by ideas from string theory and quantum field theory new invariants of knots and 3-dimensional manifolds have been constructed from complex algebraic structures such as Hopf algebras (Reshetikhin and Turaev), monoidal categories…

We introduce the homotopy surface category of a space which generalizes the 1+1-dimensional cobordism category of circles and surfaces to the situation where one introduces a background space. We explain how for a simply connected…

For smooth finite dimensional manifolds, we characterise gerbes with connection as functors on a certain surface cobordism category. This allows us to relate gerbes with connection to Turaev's 1+1-dimensional homotopy quantum field…

In this paper we describe a homotopy torsion theory in the category of small symmetric monoidal categories. Thanks to the use of natural isomorphisms as basis for the nullhomotopy structure, this homotopy torsion theory enjoys some…

A 3-dimensional homotopy quantum field theory (HQFT) can be described as a TQFT for surfaces and 3-cobordisms endowed with homotopy classes of maps into a given space. For a group $\pi$, we introduce a notion of a modular crossed…

We show that the space of chains of smooth maps from spheres into a fixed compact oriented manifold has a natural structure of a transversal $d$-algebra. We construct a structure of transversal 1-category on the space of chains of maps from…

2-Theories are a canonical way of describing categories with extra structure. 2-theory-morphisms are used when discussing how one structure can be replaced with another structure. This is central to categorical coherence theory. We place a…

A kind of unstable homotopy theory on the category of associative rings (without unit) is developed. There are the notions of fibrations, homotopy (in the sense of Karoubi), path spaces, Puppe sequences, etc. One introduces the notion of a…

Homotopy Quantum Field Theories (HQFTs) were introduced by the second author to extend the ideas and methods of Topological Quantum Field Theories to closed $d$-manifolds endowed with extra structure in the form of homotopy classes of maps…

Like categories, small 2-categories have well-understood classifying spaces. In this paper, we deal with homotopy types represented by 2-diagrams of 2-categories. Our results extend to homotopy colimits of 2-functors lower categorical…

The aim of this paper is to study categorified algebraic structures and their pseudo- and lax homomorphisms using the framework of Lawvere $2$-theories, and more generally, (enhanced) $2$-dimensional sketches. The key notion we focus on is…

We use geometric ideas coming from certain classic algebraic constructions to associate, to every classical field theory, a symmetric monoidal double functor from the double category of cobordisms with corners to a certain symmetric…

Modular functors, i.e. consistent systems of projective representations of mapping class groups of surfaces, have been constructed for non-semisimple modular categories already decades ago. Concepts from homological algebra have not been…

Motivated by the path integral analysis of boundary conditions in a 3-dimensional topological sigma-model, we suggest a definition of the 2-category associated with a holomorphic symplectic manifold X and study its properties. The simplest…

The lattice definition of the two-dimensional topological quantum field theory [Fukuma, {\em et al}, Commun.~Math.~Phys.\ {\bf 161}, 157 (1994)] is generalized to arbitrary (not necessarily orientable) compact surfaces. It is shown that…

This is the first of a series of papers devoted to lay the foundations of Algebraic Geometry in homotopical and higher categorical contexts (for part II, see math.AG/0404373). In this first part we investigate a notion of higher topos. For…

Tangent categories provide an axiomatic framework for understanding various tangent bundles and differential operations that occur in differential geometry, algebraic geometry, abstract homotopy theory, and computer science. Previous work…