Related papers: Representations of the homotopy surface category o…

The embedded cobordism category under study in this paper generalizes the category of conformal surfaces, introduced by G. Segal in order to formalize the concept of field theories. Our main result identifies the homotopy type of the…

We explain how the notion of homotopy colimits gives rise to that of mapping spaces, even in categories which are not simplicial. We apply the technique of model approximations and use elementary properties of the category of spaces to be…

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…

Let $\mathcal{A}_{g,d}$ be the (topological) cobordism category of orientable surfaces whose connected components are homeomorphic to either $S^1 \times I$ with one incoming and one outgoing boundary component or the surface $\Sigma_{g,d}$…

The classifying spaces of cobordisms of singular maps have two fairly different constructions. We expose a homotopy theoretical connection between them. As a corollary we show that the classifying spaces in some cases have a simple product…

In this paper we study the topology of cobordism categories of manifolds with corners. Specifically, if {Cob}_{d,<k>} is the category whose objets are a fixed dimension d, with corners of codimension less than or equal to k, then we…

In this paper we introduce an open-closed cobordism category with maps to a background space. We identify the classifying space of this category for certain classes of background space. The key ingredient is the homology stability of…

We study a variation of Turaev's homotopy quantum field theories using 2-categories of surfaces. We define the homotopy surface 2-category of a space $X$ and define an $\cS_X$-structure to be a monoidal 2-functor from this to the 2-category…

We consider recognizable evaluations for a suitable category of oriented two-dimensional cobordisms with corners between finite unions of intervals. We call such cobordisms thin flat surfaces. An evaluation is given by a power series in two…

Galatius, Madsen, Tillmann and Weiss have identified the homotopy type of the classifying space of the cobordism category with objects (d-1)-dimensional manifolds embedded in R^\infty. In this paper we apply the techniques of spaces of…

For a finite group $G$, we define the $G$-cobordism category in dimension two. We show there is a one-to-one correspondence between the connected components of its classifying space and the abelianization of $G$. Also, we find an…

We describe a fully faithful embedding of the category of (reflexive) globular sets into the category of counital cosymmetric $R$-coalgebras when $R$ is an integral domain. This embedding is a lift of the usual functor of $R$-chains and the…

In this paper we study cobordism categories consisting of manifolds which are endowed with geometric structure. Examples of such geometric structures include symplectic structures, flat connections on principal bundles, and complex…

We consider the topological category of $h$-cobordisms between manifolds with boundary and compare its homotopy type with the standard $h$-cobordism space of a compact smooth manifold.

We introduce and study a notion of relative 1-homotopy type for Sobolev maps from a surface to a metric space spanning a given collection of Jordan curves. We use this to establish the existence and local H\"older regularity of area…

In this chapter we survey some particular topics in category theory in a somewhat unconventional manner. Our main focus will be on monoidal categories, mostly symmetric ones, for which we propose a physical interpretation. These are…

In this paper we show that for m>n the set of cobordism classes of maps from m-sphere to n-sphere is trivial. The determination of the cobordism homotopy groups of spheres admits applications to the covers for spheres.

Homotopy Quantum Field Theories as variants of Topological Quantum Field Theories are described by functors from some cobordism category, enriched with homotopical data, to a symmetric monoidal category $\mathcal{V}$. A new notion of HQFTs…

Motivated by the study of the interrelation between functorial and algebraic quantum field theory, we point out that on any locally trivial bundle of compact groups, representations up to homotopy are enough to separate points by means of…

Grothendieck-Verdier categories (also known as $\ast$-autonomous categories) generalize rigid monoidal categories, with notable representation-theoretic examples including categories of bimodules, modules over Hopf algebroids, and modules…