English

Homotopical algebra is not concrete

Category Theory 2025-08-05 v4 Algebraic Topology Logic

Abstract

We generalize Freyd's well-known result that "homotopy is not concrete", offering a general method to show that under certain assumptions on a model category M\mathcal M, its homotopy category ho(M)\text{ho}(\mathcal M) cannot be concrete. This result is part of an attempt to understand more deeply the relation between set theory and abstract homotopy theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1704.00303,
  title  = {Homotopical algebra is not concrete},
  author = {Fosco Loregian and Ivan Di Liberti},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.00303},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Final version, accepted for publication on Journal of Homotopy and Related Structures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:04:53.448Z