-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 13
/
Copy pathps5.tex
8055 lines (7764 loc) · 392 KB
/
ps5.tex
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
%% Anti-Copyright 2015 - the scrivener
\chapter{Homology and cohomology (abelianization of homotopy types)}
\label{ch:V}
\presectionfill\ondate{1.7.}\pspage{291}\par
% 87
\hangsection[Comments on Thomason's paper on closed model structure
\dots]{Comments on Thomason's paper on closed model structure on
\texorpdfstring{\Cat}{(Cat)}.}\label{sec:87}%
I couldn't resist last night and had to look through Thomason's
preprint on the closed model structure of
\Cat.\scrcomment{\textcite{Thomason1980}} The paper is really pleasant
reading -- and it gives exactly what had been lacking me in my
reflections lately on the homotopy theory of \Cat{} -- namely, a class
of neat monomorphisms $Y\to X$ which all have the property that cobase
change by these preserves weak equivalence, the so-called \emph{Dwyer
maps}.\scrcomment{These Dwyer maps are not closed under retracts, so
\textcite{Cisinski1999} introduced the
\href{http://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/Dwyer+map}{\emph{pseudo-Dwyer
maps}} which are, and \emph{they} are now called Dwyer maps.} I
had hoped for a while that ``open immersions'' and their duals, the
``closed immersions'' (namely sieve and cosieve maps, in Thomason's
wording), have this property, and when it turned out they hadn't, I
had been at a loss of what stronger property to put instead, wide
enough however to allow for the standard factorization statements for
a map to go through. The definition of a Dwyer map is an extremely
pretty one -- it is an open immersion $Y\to X$ such that the induced
map from $Y$ into its closure $\overline Y$ should have a right
adjoint. Now this implies that $Y\to\overline Y$ is aspheric, and I
suspect that this extra condition on an open immersion $Y\to X$ should
be sufficient to imply that it has the ``cofibration property'' above
with respect to weak equivalence. It would mean in a sense that the
given open immersion is very close to being a closed immersion too,
without however being a direct summand necessarily. The dual notion is
that of a closed immersion such that the corresponding interior
$\mathring Y$ of $Y$ in $X$ gives a map $\mathring Y \to Y$ which has
a left adjoint, or only which is ``coaspheric''. By Quillen's duality
principle, if one notion works well for pushouts, so does the
other. -- With this notion in hands, it shouldn't be difficult now to
get a closed model structure on \Cat{} a lot simpler than
Thomason's. Visibly, he was hampered by the standing reflex: homotopy
= semi-simplicial algebra, which caused him to pass by the detour of
the category \Simplexhat{} of semi-simplicial complexes, rather than
just working in \Cat{} itself. I'll have to come back upon this in
part \ref{ch:V} of the notes, where I intend to investigate the
homotopy properties of \Cat{} and elementary modelizers \Ahat,
including the existence of closed model structures.
Some comments of Thomason's at the end of his preprint, about
application to algebraic K-theory, seem to indicate that the notion of
``integration'' and ``cointegration'' of homotopy types I have been
interested in, has been studied (under the name holim and hocolim) in
the context of closed model categories by Anderson (his paper appeared
in 1978).\scrcomment{\textcite{Anderson1978}} As I am going to develop
some ideas along these lines in part \ref{ch:VI} on derivators, I
should have a look at what Anderson does, notably\pspage{292} what his
assumptions on the indexing categories are. Thomason seems to believe
that the closed model structure of \Cat{} is essential for being able
to take homotopy limits -- whereas it is clear a priori to me that the
notion depends only on the notion of weak equivalence. Indeed, he
seems to consider the possibility of taking homotopy limits in \Cat{}
as the main application of his theorem, and in order to apply
Anderson's results, believes it is necessary to be able to give
concrete characterizations for ``fibrations'' and ``cofibrations'' of
his closed model structure. Now, it turns out that the case he is
interested in (for proving ``Lichtenbaum's
conjecture'')\scrcomment{aka the
\href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quillen-Lichtenbaum_conjecture}{Quillen–Lichtenbaum
conjecture}} is a typical
case of \emph{direct} homotopy limits, namely ``integration'' -- which
can be described directly in \Cat{} in such an amazingly simple way
(as sketched in section \ref{sec:69}, p.\
\ref{p:198}--\ref{p:199}). Thus, I feel for this application, the
closed model structure is wholly irrelevant. As for cointegration, I
do not expect that there is a comparably simple construction of this
operation within the modelizer \Cat, but presumably there is when
taking \oo-Gr-stacks as models (as suggested by the ``geometric''
approach to cohomology invariants, via stacks, where the operation of
``direct image'', namely cohomology precisely, is the obvious one,
whereas inverse images are more delicate to define, by an adjunction
property with respect to direct images\ldots). When working in \Cat,
cointegration of homotopy types should be no more nor less involved
than in any closed model category say, and involve intensive recourse
to ``fibrations'' (in the sense of the closed model structure, or more
intrinsically, in the sense that base change by these should preserve
weak equivalence). Now the latter have become quite familiar to me
during my long scratchwork on cohomology properties of maps in \Cat,
and I'll have to try to put it down nicely in part \ref{ch:V} of the
notes.
% 88
\hangsection[Review of pending questions and topics (questions 1) to
\dots]{Review of pending questions and topics
\texorpdfstring{\textup(questions \textup{1)} to \textup{5)},
including characterizing canonical modelizers\textup)}{(questions
1) to 5), including characterizing canonical
modelizers)}.}\label{sec:88}%
The present ``part \ref{ch:IV}'' on asphericity structures (and their
relations to contractibility structures) turns out a lot longer than I
anticipated, and the end is not yet quite in sight! Therefore, before
pursuing, I would like to make a review of the questions along these
lines which seem to require elucidation, and then decide which I'm
going to deal with, before going over to part \ref{ch:V}.
\namedlabel{q:88.1}{1)}\enspace Whereas the relevant notions of
``morphisms'' and ``bimorphisms'' for contractibility structures seem
to me well understood, there remains\pspage{293} a certain feeling of
uneasiness with respect to asphericity structures, which haven't got
yet a reasonable notion of morphism. Thus, I have left unanswered the
questions raised in section \ref{sec:84} around the inclusion
condition
\[ f_!(M\suba) \subset M'\suba,\]
so it is not impossible that, while relying on the mere feeling that
the inclusion is just not reasonable and that the answer to the
specific questions are presumably negative, I am about to miss some
unexpected important fact! It seems I developed kind of a block
against checking -- maybe the answers are well-known and Tim Porter
will tell me\ldots Maybe I better leave the question for a later
moment, as it will ripen by itself if I leave it alone\ldots
\namedlabel{q:88.2}{2)}\enspace I should at last introduce
contractors, and morphisms of such. When I set out on part \ref{ch:IV}
of the notes, I expected that the notion of a contractor would be one
main notion, alongside with the notion of a canonical modelizer -- it
turns out that so far I didn't have much use yet for one or the
other. Contractors can be viewed as categories generating
contractibility structures, just as aspherators are there for
generating asphericity structures. However, whereas any small category
is an aspherator, the same is definitely not so for contractors, as we
demand that every object in $C$ should be contractible, for the
homotopy structure in \Chat{} generated by $C$ itself. If we except
the case of a contractor equivalent to the final category (a so-called
\emph{trivial} contractor), a contractor is a strict test category --
thus the notion appears somewhat as a hinge notion between the test
notions, and the ``pure'' homotopy notions and more specifically,
contractibility structures. Writing up some scratchnotes I got should
be a pure routine matter.
\namedlabel{q:88.3}{3)}\enspace A lot more interesting seems to me to
try and resolve a persistent feeling of uneasiness which has been
floating, throughout the long-winded reflections on homotopy and
asphericity structures in parts \ref{ch:III} and \ref{ch:IV} of the
notes. This is tied up with this fact, that my treatment of the main
notions, namely contractibility and asphericity, has been consistently
\emph{non-autodual}. More specifically, when a category $M$ is
endowed with either a contractibility or an asphericity structure, it
does \emph{not} follow that the opposite category $M\op$ is too in a
natural way. When defining homotopy relations and homotopism
structures (section \ref{sec:51}, \ref{subsec:51.A} and
\ref{subsec:51.B}), these were autodual notions, but the notion of a
homotopy interval structure, which we used in order to pass from a
contractibility\pspage{294} structure to the corresponding notions of
homotopy equivalence between maps and of homotopisms, is highly
non-autodual too. It breaks down altogether when $M$ is a ``pointed''
category, namely contains an object which is both initial and final --
in this case, for any homotopy interval structure on $M$, any two maps
in $M$ are homotopic, and any map is a homotopism, hence any object is
contractible!
Our initial motivation, namely understanding ``modelizers'' for
ordinary homotopy types, made it very natural to get involved in
non-autodual situations, as the homotopy category \Hot{} itself, and
the usual model categories for it, displays strongly non-autodual
features. (Thus, whereas the usual test categories all have a final
object, it is easy to see that a test category cannot possibly have an
initial object.) However, the homotopy and asphericity notions we then
came to develop make sense and are familiar indeed not only in the
``modelizing story'', but in any situation whatever which turns up,
giving rise to anything like a ``homology'' or a ``homotopy''
theory. To give one specific example, starting with an abelian
category \scrA, the corresponding homology theory is concerned with the
category of \scrA-valued complexes, say $\mathrm
K^\bullet(\scrA)$. The most basic notions here are the three homotopy
notions and two asphericity notions, namely: homotopy equivalence
between maps, homotopism, contractible objects, and quasi-isomorphisms
(= ``weak equivalences''), and acyclic (= ``aspheric'') objects. The
two first homotopy notions determine each other in the usual way, and
define the third, namely an object is contractible (or null-homotopic)
if{f} the map $0\to X$, or equivalently $X\to 0$, is a homotopism. On
the other hand, if we use the mapping-cylinder construction for a map,
the set of contractible objects determines the set of homotopisms, as
the maps whose mapping cylinder is contractible. Likewise, weak
equivalences determine aspheric objects, and conversely if the mapping
cylinder construction is given. The question that now comes to mind
immediately is whether the two sets of notions, the three pure
homotopy notions (determining each other), and the two ``asphericity
notions'' (determining each other too), mutually determine each
other, as in the non-commutative set-up we have worked in so far. We
can also remark that the functor
\[ \mathrm H^0 : \mathrm K^\bullet(\scrA)\to\scrA\]
visibly plays the part of the functor \piz{} in the non-commutative
set-up, it gives rise moreover to the $\mathrm H^i$ functors (any
integer $i$) by composing with the iterated shift functor (where the
shift of $X$ is just the mapping\pspage{295} cylinder of $0\to X$),
thus the set of aspheric objects formally from the functor $\mathrm
H^0$ (as the objects $X$ such that $\mathrm H^i(X)=0$ for all $i$),
much as in the non-commutative set-up the functor \piz{} for a
contractibility structure determines the latter, and hence also the
corresponding asphericity structure.
Thus, the question arises of formulating the basic structures, namely
contractibility and asphericity structures, in an autodual way,
applying both to the autodual situation just described, and to the
non-autodual one we have been working out in the notes -- and if
possible even, in all situations met with so far where a homology or
homotopy theory of some kind of other has turned up. Of course, it is
by no means sure a priori that we can do so, by keeping first nicely
apart the two sets of notions (contractibility and asphericity),
namely defining them separately, and then showing that a
contractibility structures determines an asphericity structures, and
is determined by the latter. Maybe we'll have to define from the
outset a richer kind of structure, where both ``pure'' homotopy
notions and asphericity notions are involved. Also, the familiar
generalization of mapping cylinders, namely homotopy fibers and
cofibers, and the corresponding long exact sequences, will evidently
play an important role in the structure to be described. Now, this
again ties in with the corresponding structure of a derivator, as
contemplated in section \ref{sec:69}, namely ``integration'' and
``cointegration'' of diagrams in a given category.
Definitely, this reflection is going to lead well beyond the scope of
the present part \ref{ch:IV}\scrcomment{I guess it is because this
question is already growing in prominence that AG later decided to include
the present section in part \ref{ch:V}!} -- it relates rather to
part \ref{it:71.C} of the working program envisioned by the end of May
(section \ref{sec:71}, p.\ \ref{p:207}--\ref{p:210}), and rather
belong to part \ref{ch:VI} of these notes, which presumably will
center around the notion of a derivator. There is however a more
technical question, and of more limited scope, which deserves some
thought and goes somewhat in the same direction, namely: how to define
(for a given contractibility or asphericity structure on $M$) an
\emph{induced} structure on a category $M_{/a}$, where $a$ is in $M$?
There is a little perplexity in my mind, even when $M$ is of the type
\Chat{} say, with $C$ a contractor and $a$ in $C$, taking the
canonical structure on \Chat{} -- because with the most evident choice
of an ``induced'' asphericity structure on $(\Chat)_{/a} \simeq
(C_{/a})\uphat$, namely the usual notion of aspheric objects, this
structure\pspage{296} will practically never be totally aspheric
(unless we take $a$ to be a final object of $C$), hence will not be
associated to a contractibility structure -- whereas we expect that
the contractibility structure of \Chat{} should induce one on
$\Chat_{/a}$. Presumably, the ``correct'' notions of induced
structure, in the case of asphericity structure and the corresponding
notion of weak equivalence, should be considerably stronger than the
one I just envisioned, and correspond to the intuition of
``\emph{fiberwise} homotopy types'' over the object $a$ (visualized as
a space-like object). A careful description of such induced structures
seems to me to be needed, and the natural place to be the present part
\ref{ch:IV} of the notes.
\namedlabel{q:88.4}{4)}\enspace A little reflection on semi-simplicial
homotopy notions (and their analogons when $\Simplex$ is replaced by a
general test category $\Delta$) seems needed, in order to situate the
following fact: ss homotopy notions, namely for ss objects in any
category $A$, behave well with respect to \emph{any} functor
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:88.1}
A\to B,\tag{1}
\end{equation}
without having to assume that this functor commutes with finite
products, whereas in the context of homotopy structures, when have a
functor between categories endowed say with homotopy interval
structures (for instance, with contractibility structures), such a
functor
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:88.2}
M\to N\tag{2}
\end{equation}
behaves well with respect to homotopy notions only, it would seem, if
we assume beforehand it commutes with finite products (plus, of
course, that it transforms a given generating family of homotopy
intervals of $M$ into homotopy intervals of $N$). In
case
\[ M = \bHom(\Delta\op,A), \quad N=\bHom(\Delta\op,B),\]
and \eqref{eq:88.2} comes from a functor \eqref{eq:88.1} which does
not commutes to finite products, neither does \eqref{eq:88.2} -- and
still \eqref{eq:88.2} is well-behaved with respect to ss homotopy
notions! It should be noted of course that the semi-simplicial
homotopy notions in $M$ can be defined, even without assuming that in
$A$ finite products exist, namely in situations when $M$ does not
admit finite products -- and hence, strictly speaking, the set-up of
section \ref{sec:51} does not apply. All this causes a slightly
awkward feeling, which I would like to clarify and see what's going
on. I suspect it should be simple enough to do it here and now.
First, assume that $A$ is stable under finite products, and under
direct sums (with small indexing set say -- for what we want to do
with $\Simplex$, finite direct sums even would be enough). We'll use
sums only with summands\pspage{297} equal to a chosen final object $e$
of $A$, in order to get a functor
\[ I\mapsto I_A : \Sets\to A,\]
where $I_A$ is the ``constant'' object of $A$ with value $I$, namely a
sum of $I$ copies of $e$ (sometimes also written $I\times e$). Using
this functor, we get a functor
\[\Delta\!\uphat = \bHom(\Delta\op,\Sets) \to M =
\bHom(\Delta\op,A),\]
which I denote by
\[K\mapsto K_A,\]
associating to any ss~set the corresponding ``constant'' (relative to
$A$) ss~object of $A$.\scrcomment{I think it's a bit unclear here
whether the test category $\Delta$ is actually assumed to be
$\Simplex$ after all\ldots} On the other hand, because $A$ admits
finite products, so does $M$, which enables us to make use of the
homotopy notions developed in sections \ref{sec:51} etc. Thus, if
\[\bI=(I,\delta_0,\delta_1)\]
is any interval in $\Delta\!\uphat$, considering the corresponding
``$A$-constant'' interval $\bI_A$ in $M$, we get homotopy notions in
$M$, which we may refer to as \emph{\bI-homotopy} (dropping the
subscript $A$). They can all be deduced from the elementary
\bI-homotopy between maps in $M$, which is expressed in the known way,
in terms of a map in $M$
\[ h : \bI_A \times X\to Y,\]
where $X$ and $Y$ are the source and target in $M$ of the two
considered maps, between which we want to find an elementary
\bI-homotopy $h$. This map $h$ decomposes componentwise into
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:88.star}
h_n : (I_n)_A \times X_n\to Y_n,\tag{*}
\end{equation}
and each $h_n$ can be interpreted, in view of the definition of $I_n$,
as a map
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:88.starprime}
h_n': I_n \to \Hom_A(X_n,Y_n),\tag{*'}
\end{equation}
provided we assume that taking products in $A$ is distributive with
respect to the sums we are taking, whence
\[ (I_n)_A \times X_n \simeq (I_n)_{X_n} = \text{direct sum of $I_n$
copies of $X_n$.}\]
Now to give $h$, or equivalently a sequence of maps $h_n$ in
\eqref{eq:88.star} ``functorial in $n$ for variable $n$'', amounts to
giving a sequence of maps \eqref{eq:88.starprime}, satisfying a
corresponding compatibility relation for variable $n$. The point of
course is that (for any $I$ in $\Delta\!\uphat$ and $X,Y$ in $M$)
\emph{the set of data \eqref{eq:88.starprime} plus the compatibility
condition make sense, formally, independently of any exactness
assumptions on $A$}. Thus, it can be taken\pspage{298} as the formal
ingredient of a definition of ``elementary \bI-homotopy'' between two
maps in $M$, without any assumptions whatever on the category $A$ we
start with. The standard case is the one when $I=\Simplex_1$, the
``unit interval'', but never mind. The definition works just as well,
when $\Simplex$ is replaced by any (let's say small) category $\Delta$
whatever. On the other hand, it is immediate that for a functor $M\to
N$ as above, induced by a functor $A\to B$, for two maps in $M$, any
elementary homotopy between them gives rise to an elementary homotopy
of their images in $N$ -- which is just the well-known fact (in case
$\Delta=\Simplex$, $I=\Simplex_1$) that $M\to N$ is compatible with
simplicial homotopy notions.
In order to fit this into the general framework of section
\ref{sec:51}, let's remark that if $A$ is a full subcategory of a
category $A'$, then for a pair of maps in $M$, the elementary
\bI-homotopies between these are the same as when considering the
given maps as maps in $M'=\bHom(\Delta\op,A')$, in which $M$ is embedded
as a full subcategory. Now, any (small, say) category $A$ can be
embedded canonically into $A'=\Ahat$ as a full subcategory, and any
functor
\[f:A\to B\]
embeds in the corresponding functor
\[f_!:\Ahat\to\Bhat,\]
hence the functor
\[\varphi:M\to N\]
embeds in the corresponding functor
\[\varphi':M'\to N', \quad M'=\bHom(\Delta\op,\Ahat),
N'=\bHom(\Delta\op,\Bhat).\]
As \Ahat, \Bhat{} satisfy the required exactness properties, it
follows that the \bI-homotopy notions in $M',N'$ can be interpreted in
terms of the notions of section \ref{sec:51}, with respect to $\bI_A$
and $\bI_B$, defined now as (componentwise) constant objects of
\Ahat{} and \Bhat{} respectively. Still, $f_!$ commutes to finite
products only if $f$ does, so we are still left with explaining why
$M'\to N'$ is well-behaved with respect to \bI-homotopy
notions. Equivalently, we need only see this in the case of
\eqref{eq:88.2} $M\to N$, when $A$ and $B$ are supposed to have the
required exactness properties to allow for the interpretation given
above of the \bI-homotopy notions in terms of the formalism of section
\ref{sec:51}, and when moreover $f$ (as $f_!$ above)\pspage{299}
commutes with sums. This now is readily expressed by the relations
\begin{align*}
&\varphi'(\bI_A) \simeq \bI_B , \\
&\varphi'(\bI_A\times X) \tosim \varphi'(\bI_A)\times \varphi'(X),
\end{align*}
i.e., while $\varphi'$ does \emph{not} commute to finite products in
general, however it \emph{does} commute to the products which enter in
the description of elementary homotopies (as these products can be
expressed in terms of direct sums in $A,B$, and $f$ commutes to
these).
These reflections suggest that the notions of homotopy interval
structures and contractibility structures may be generalized, in a way
that the underlying category need no longer be stable under finite
products nor even admit a final object; and likewise, the notion of a
morphism of such structures may be generalized, without assuming that
the underlying functor should commute with finite products. The
thought that this kind of generalization may be needed had already
occurred before in these notes, in connection with the corresponding
situation about twenty five years ago, when the notion of a site was
developed. But at present, the extension doesn't seem urgent yet, and
I better stop here this long digression!
The remaining questions possibly to deal with in part \ref{ch:IV} are
all concerned with modelizers. I'll try to be brief!
\namedlabel{q:88.5}{5)}\enspace Consider an ``algebraic structure
type'', and the category $M$ of its set-theoretic realizations. I am
looking for a comprehensive set of sufficient conditions on $M$ to
ensure that $M$ is a ``canonical modelizer''. It seems natural to
assume beforehand that in $M$ (where at any rate small direct and
inverse limits must exist) internal $\bHom$'s exist, and more
generally, for $X,Y$ two objects over an object $S$ of $M$, that
$\bHom_S(X,Y)$ -- this implies that base change $S'\to S$ in $M$
commutes with small direct limits and a fortiori, that direct sums are
universal -- we may as well suppose them disjoint too. One feel quite
willing too to throw in the total $0$-connectedness assumption (cf.\
section \ref{sec:58}), and that every non-empty object has a section
over the final object. This preliminary set of conditions on an
algebraic structure species is of course highly unusual, however it is
satisfied for must ``elementary'' algebraic structures (by which I
mean $M\equeq \Ahat$ for some small category $A$), as well as for
$n$-stacks or \oo-Gr-stacks, for any $n$ between $0$ and \oo. The hope
now is, in terms of these assumptions, to give a necessary and
sufficient condition in order that a)\enspace the ``canonical''
homotopy structure on $M$ be a contractibility structure, and moreover
b)\enspace the latter structure be ``modelizing'', by which we mean
that the\pspage{300} associated \scrWoo-asphericity structure (\scrWoo{}
= usual weak equivalences) be modelizing, which will imply that for
\emph{any} basic localizer \scrW, the corresponding \scrW-asphericity
structure is modelizing.
Even if I don't look into this question now, it'll turn up soon enough
in a similar shape, when it comes to prove modelizing properties for
categories of stacks of various kinds. The best we could hope for
would be a statement in terms of the category structure of $M$ alone,
with no assumption that $M$ be defined in terms of an algebraic
structure type. If I try to formulate anything by way of wishful
testing conjecture, what comes to mind is: is it enough that there
should exist a separating contractible interval? So the first I would
try to get an idea, is to see how to make a counterexample to
this\ldots
\bigbreak
\presectionfill\ondate{3.7.}\par
% 89
\hangsection[Digression (continued) on left exactness properties of
$f_!$ \dots]{Digression
\texorpdfstring{\textup(continued\textup)}{(continued)} on left
exactness properties of \texorpdfstring{$f_!$}{f!}
functors.}\label{sec:89}%
In connection with the left exactness properties of a $f_!$ functor,
considered three days ago (section \ref{sec:85}), I have been befallen
by some doubts whether any subcategory of \Cat{} containing the
subcategory of standard simplices is strictly generating. I wrote
there (p.\ \ref{p:284}) that as this is true for $\Simplex$ itself, it
``follows a fortiori'' for any subcategory $A$ of \Cat{} containing
$\Simplex$. Assuming $A$ to be full and denoting by $i$ the inclusion
functor, this is known to be equivalent (cf.\ remark \ref{rem:85.2}
same page) to $i^*:\Cat\to\Ahat$ being fully faithful, and in this
form, it doesn't look so obvious that when this is true for one full
subcategory, $A_0$ say, it should be true for any larger one $A$. This
thought had been lingering for a second while writing the ``a
fortiori'' and I then brushed it aside, because of the formulation of
being generating in terms of strict epimorphisms. Only the next day
did it occur to me that it is by no means clear that if a family of
maps $X_i\to X$ in a category $M$ is strictly epimorphic, any larger
family with same target $X$ should be ``a fortiori'' strictly
epimorphic too -- the ``a fortiori'' is known to apply only in the
case of the similar notions of epimorphic, or universally strictly
epimorphic, families of maps. After a little perplexity, I found the
situation was saved, in the case I was interested in, through the fact
that it was known from Giraud's article on
descent\scrcomment{\textcite{Giraud1964}} (Bull.\ Soc.\ Math.\ France,
Mémoire 2, 1964, prop.\ 2.5, p.\ 28) that $\Simplex$ and even the
smaller subcategory of simplices of dimension $\le 2$, is
even\pspage{301} generating by ``\emph{universally} strict
epimorphisms'', a notion which is stable under enlargement of the
family of maps, as recalled above. Thus, the statement made on p.\
\ref{p:284} does hold true. And I just checked today that, while this
stability property by enlargement is surely not always true for a
family of maps which is strictly epimorphic, however, it \emph{is}
true that if a full subcategory $A_0$ of a category $M$ is generating
by strict epimorphisms (or, as we'll say, is ``strictly generating''),
then so is any larger full subcategory $A$. This is seen by an easy
direct argument, in terms of the initial definition, as meaning that
for any object $X$ in $M$, the family of maps $a_i\to X$ with target
$X$ and source in the given subcategory ($A$ say) should be strictly
epimorphic. (For\scrcomment{\textcite{SGA4vol1}} the definition of
common variants of the notion of epimorphism, see the ``Glossaire'' at
the end of chapter 1, SGA~4, vol.~1.)
It occurred also to me that (as suspected in remark \ref{rem:85.3},
loc.\ cit.) the functor
\[i_!: \Simplexhat\to\Cat\]
coming from the inclusion functor $i:\Simplex\to\Cat$ is \emph{not}
left exact (for another reason though than first contemplated), namely
because \Cat{} is known \emph{not to be a topos} (for instance, an
epimorphism need not be \emph{strict} (or, what amounts here to the
same, \emph{effective}) -- as stated in the cited result of
Giraud). Indeed, we have the following
\begin{proposition}[which should belong to section \ref{sec:85}!]
Let $M$ be a \scrU-category stable under small direct limits, $A$ a
small full subcategory, $i:A\to M$ the inclusion functor, hence a
functor
\[i_!:\Ahat\to M.\]
If $A$ is strictly generating \textup(i.e., $i^*:M\to\Ahat$ fully
faithful\textup), then $i_!$ is left exact if{f} $M$ is a topos.
\end{proposition}
Indeed, the inclusion functor into \Ahat{} of $M'$, the essential
image of $i^*$ in \Ahat, admits a left adjoint ($i_!$ essentially). By
the criterion of Giraud, left exactness of this adjoint, or
equivalently of $i_!$, means that $M'$ is the category of sheaves on
$A$ for a suitable site structure on $A$, qed.
\begin{corollary}
If $M$ is \emph{not} a topos, then $i_!$ does \emph{not} commute to
fibered products in \Ahat{} of diagrams of the type
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:89.star}
\begin{tabular}{@{}c@{}}
\begin{tikzcd}[baseline=(O.base),column sep=tiny,row sep=small]
b\ar[dr] & & c\ar[dl] \\ & |[alias=O]| F &
\end{tikzcd},
\end{tabular}\tag{*}
\end{equation}
with $b,c$ in $A$ and $F$ in \Ahat,\pspage{302} while it does
commute to finite products, and to fibered products of any two
objects of \Ahat{} over an object of $A$\kern1pt.
\end{corollary}
The ``while'' comes from prop.\ \ref{prop:85.1} and prop.\
\ref{prop:85.2} of section \ref{sec:85}, which imply too that, if $M$ is
strictly generating and whether or not $M$ is a topos, left exactness
of $i_!$ is equivalent with commutation to fibered products of the
diagrams \eqref{eq:89.star}. Hence the corollary.
This corollary answers also the perplexity raised in remark
\ref{rem:85.1} (p.\ \ref{p:283}), as to a hypothetical sharper version
of part \ref{it:85.prop1.b}, concerning fibered products. As
anticipated there, it turns out that this sharper version is not
valid, -- not without additional assumptions at any rate.
% 90
\hangsection[Review of questions (continued): 6) Existence of test
\dots]{Review of questions
\texorpdfstring{\textup(continued\textup)}{(continued)}:
\texorpdfstring{\textup{6)}}{6)} Existence of test functors and
related questions. Digression on strictly generating
subcategories.}\label{sec:90}%
After this digression on exactness properties of $f_!$ functors, let's
come back to the review of those questions not yet dealt with, which
seem more or less to belong to the present part \ref{ch:IV} of the
notes. We had stopped two days ago with the question \ref{q:88.5} of
finding some simple characterization of canonical modelizers,
comparable maybe in simplicity to the characterization we found for
test categories (in part \ref{ch:II}). This question may well turn out
to be related to the following one.
\namedlabel{q:90.6}{6)}\enspace This is the question of finding handy
existence theorems for test functors, whereas so far our attention to
test functors had been turned towards a thorough understanding of the
very notion of a test functor and its variants. I have the feeling
that, after the reflections of sections \ref{sec:78} and \ref{sec:86}
notably, the notion in itself is about understood now, so that time is
getting ripe for asking for existence theorems. As all modelizers we
have been meeting so far were associated to asphericity structures, it
seems reasonable to restrict to these, namely to the case of a given
modelizing asphericity structure
\[(M,M\suba),\]
and, if need be, even restrict to the case when this structure is
associated to a contractibility structure $M\subc$. We suppose given
moreover a test category $A$, which we may (if needed) assume to be
strict even, or even a contractor (i.e., the objects of $A$ in \Ahat{}
are moreover contractible, for the homotopy interval structure in
\Ahat{} defined by all intervals coming from $A$). The question then
is whether there exists a test functor
\[A\to M.\]
This (under the assumptions made) just reduces to the existence
of\pspage{303} a functor which be $M\suba$-\scrW-aspheric. Here,
\scrW{} is a given basic localizer, with respect to which we got an
asphericity structure. The most important case for us surely is the
one when $\scrW=\scrWoo$, namely usual weak equivalence. It is
immediate indeed that an $M\suba$-\scrW-aspheric functor is equally
aspheric for the corresponding $\scrW'$-asphericity structure of $M$,
for any basic localizer $\scrW'\supset\scrW$. Thus, if we get an
aspheric functor for \scrWoo, the finest basic localizer of all, we
get ipso facto an aspheric functor for any basic localizer
\scrW. (Note also that if an asphericity structure is modelizing for a
given \scrW, the corresponding $\scrW'$-structure is modelizing too,
for any $\scrW'\supset\scrW$; and the analogous fact holds for the
notion of a test category -- namely a \scrW-test category is also a
$\scrW'$-test category, and similarly for total asphericity of \Ahat{}
and hence for the condition of being a \emph{strict} test category.)
In case $M$ is even endowed with a contractibility structure, we will
be interested, more specifically still, in aspheric functors factoring
not only through $M\suba$, but even through $M\subc$:
\[ i:A\to M\subc,\]
while replacing the asphericity requirement on this functor, by the
stronger one that for any $x$ in $M\subc$, the object $i^*(x)$ in
\Ahat{} be \emph{contractible} (for the homotopy structure in \Ahat{}
defined by homotopy intervals coming from objects in $A$, say). In
other words, we are interested in the question of existence of
\emph{bimorphisms} of contractibility structures (in the sense of
section \ref{sec:86}) from $(M,M\subc)$ to $(\Ahat,\Ahatc)$. It may be
noted that in both cases (working with asphericity structures or with
the contractibility structures instead), in this existence question,
we may altogether forget $M$ itself, and consider it as an existence
question for functors from $A$ into either $M\suba$, or $M\subc$, with
the property that for any object $x$ in the target category $M\suba$
or $M\subc$, the object $i^*(x)$ in \Ahat{} be either aspheric, or
contractible. In the second case, we may even restrict $x$ to be in
any given subcategory $C$ of $M\subc$ generating the contractibility
structure -- and in the cases met with so far, we can find such a $C$
reduced to just one object $I$. In the case of asphericity structures,
the same holds when taking for $C$ a subcategory generating the
asphericity structure, provided however $C$ contains the image of $A$
by $i$ (which gives little hope to have $C$ restricted to just one
element!)
The interest of finding criteria for existence of \scrW-aspheric
or\pspage{304} or more stringently still of ``c-\emph{aspheric
functor}'' (as we may call them) is rather evident, as it gives a
way, via $i^*$, for any homotopy type described in terms of a
``model'' $x$ in $M$, to find a corresponding model $i^*(x)$ in
\Ahat. The situation would be more satisfactory still if we could find
the test functor $i$ such that the corresponding functor
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.1}
i_!:\Ahat\to M\tag{1}
\end{equation}
be modelizing too (assuming $M$ to be stable under small direct
limits, so that $i_!$ is defined as the left adjoint of
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.2}
i^*:M\to\Ahat\quad\text{.)}\tag{2}
\end{equation}
In this case, for a homotopy type described by a model $K$ in \Ahat,
$i_!(K)$ gives a description of the same by a model in $M$.
Maybe we should remember though that even if we do not know about any
test functor from $A$ to $M$, still we always can find in three steps
a modelizing functor
\[M\to\Ahat,\]
namely a composition
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.star}
M \xrightarrow{j^*} \Bhat \xrightarrow{i_B}
\Cat\xrightarrow{j_A=i_A^*} \Ahat,\tag{*}
\end{equation}
where $j:B\to M$ is an $M\suba$-aspheric functor from an auxiliary
small category, which we may assume to be a test category, by a mild
extra assumption on $M$ (cf.\ cor.\ \ref{cor:79.3} p.\
\ref{p:253}). The modelizing functor we thus get has the disadvantage
of not being left exact, whereas the looked-for functor $i^*$ commutes
to small inverse limits. Still, the composition \eqref{eq:90.star} is
pretty near to being left exact, it commutes to fibered products
(because $i_B$ does) which is the next best -- we can view it as a
left-exact functor from $M$ to $\Ahat_{/E}$, where $E$ is the image in
\Ahat{} of the final object of $M$ (assuming $e_M$ exists).
There is another advantage still of having a test functor $i:A\to M$,
rather than merely using \eqref{eq:90.star}, namely it allows us to
``enrich'' the category structure of $M$, in such a way as to get
``external $\Hom$'s'' of objects of $M$, with ``values in \Ahat'', by
defining, for $x,y$ in $M$, the object $\bHom(A)(x,y)$ of \Ahat{} as
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.3}
\bHom(A)(x,y) = \bigl\{ a\mapsto\Hom_M(i(a)\times x,y)\bigr\}.
\tag{3}
\end{equation}
Such enriched structure, when $A=\Simplex$, plays an important part in
the second part of Quillen's treatment of homotopical algebra, under
the name of (semi-)simplicial categories, especially with the notion
of (semi-)simplicial model categories, which looks quite handy
indeed.\pspage{305} We should of course define composition of the
$\bHom(A)$'s, as required too in Quillen's set-up. This is done by
relating the $\bHom(A)$'s to the well-known internal $\bHom$'s in
$M\uphat$ -- which will show at the same time that for formula
\eqref{eq:90.3} to make sense, we do not really have to assume $M$ be
stable under binary products, as we can interpret the products
$i(a)\times x$ as being taken in $M\uphat$, as well as the $\Hom$, so
as to get
\[\Hom_{M\uphat}(i(a)\times x,y) \simeq \Hom_{M\uphat}(i(a),
\bHom_{M\uphat}(x,y)),\]
hence
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.4}
\bHom(A)(x,y)\simeq i^*(\bHom_{M\uphat}(x,y)),\tag{4}
\end{equation}
where $i^*$ in the right hand side is interpreted as a functor
\[ i^*:M\uphat\to\Ahat,\]
rather than $M\to\Ahat$. (I leave to the reader the task of enlarging
the basic universe, as need may be\ldots) As $i^*$ commutes to
products, the evident composition of the internal $\bHom$'s in
$M\uphat$ gives rise to the looked-for composition of the
$\bHom(A)$'s, with the required associativity properties. Of course,
in case $M$ is stable under binary products and $\bHom$'s, which
apparently is going to be the case in all modelizing situations, there
is no need in the interpretation \eqref{eq:90.4} to introduce the
prohibitively large $M\uphat$, and we can work in $M$ throughout.
There is an important relation though on the external $\bHom(A)$'s
which we would like to be true for a satisfactory formalism, namely
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.5}
\Gamma_\Ahat(\bHom(A)(x,y)) \fromsim \Hom_M(x,y),\tag{5}
\end{equation}
where $\Gamma_\Ahat$ just means $\Hom_\Ahat(e_\Ahat,\dots)$. This is
equivalent to the requirement
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.6}
i_!(e_\Ahat)\simeq e_M\tag{6}
\end{equation}
(assuming a final object $e_M$ in $M$ to exist), or equivalently
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.7}
i(e_A)\simeq e_M\tag{7}
\end{equation}
if we assume moreover $e_A$ to exist. Thus, it will be natural to ask
for test functors satisfying the extra condition \eqref{eq:90.5} or
\eqref{eq:90.6} -- and when trying to construct test functors in
various situations (even without being aware of constructing test
functors, as Mr~Jourdain\scrcomment{the reference is of course to
Molière's \emph{comédie-ballet},
\href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Bourgeois_gentilhomme}{Le
Bourgeois gentilhomme}} was ``doing prose without knowing
it''\ldots), the very first thing everybody has been doing
instinctively was to write down formula \eqref{eq:90.7},\pspage{306} I
would bet!
The motivation for wanting to find test functors being reasonably
clear by now, what kind of existence theorems may we hope for? When
$A$ is such a beautiful test category as $\Simplex$, $\Square$ or
$\Globe$, I would expect that for practically any $M$ endowed with a
modelizing contractibility structure say, under mild restrictions
(such as the exactness assumptions which are natural in the modelizing
story), there should exist a test functor indeed. What I feel less
definite about is whether it is reasonable to expect we can find $i$
even such that $i_!$ be modelizing too, in which case we would expect
of course that the pair of equivalences of categories
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.8}
\begin{tikzcd}[cramped,sep=small]
\HotOf_A \ar[r,shift left] & \HotOf_M \ar[l,shift left]
\end{tikzcd}\tag{8}
\end{equation}
defined in terms of $i_!$ and $i^*$ should be quasi-inverse to each
other, and the adjunction maps deduced from those between the functors
$i_!$ and $i^*$ themselves. This in turn is equivalent with the
adjunction morphism
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.9}
F\to i^*i_!(F)\tag{9}
\end{equation}
being a weak equivalence, for any object $F$ in \Ahat. A test functor
satisfying this exacting extra property merits a name of its own, we
may call it a \emph{perfect test functor} (or a \emph{perfect aspheric
functor}, when not making any modelizing assumptions on $A$ or
$M$). Thus, the existence problem of finding test functors can be
sharpened to the one of finding perfect ones. Remember though that the
most familiar test functor of all (besides the geometric realization
functor $\Simplex\to\Spaces$, namely the inclusion
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.10}
i:\Simplex\to\Cat\tag{10}
\end{equation}
giving rise to the nerve functor (introduced for the first time, I
believe, in a Bourbaki talk of mine, on passage to quotient by a
preequivalence relation in the category of schemes\ldots), is
\emph{not} perfect. The most natural perfect test functor from
$\Simplex$ into \Cat, more generally from any weak test category $A$
into \Cat, is of course $i_A$ -- the functor indeed which has been
dominating the whole modelizing picture in our reflections from the
start. In the case of $A=\Simplex$, Thomason discovered another
perfect test functor, conceptually less simple surely, namely
$i_!\Sd^2$, where $\Sd$ is the ``barycentric subdivision functor''.
I suspect there must be an impressive bunch of perfect test functors
from $\Simplex$ with values in more or less any given modelizer, not
only the basic one -- and the question here is to get a clear picture
of\pspage{307} how to get them, and the same of course for test
functors which need not be perfect, including \eqref{eq:90.10}.
Next question then would be to see whether the existence theorems we
may get for $\Simplex$, or its siblings $\Square$ and $\Globe$ and the
like, still hold true for a more or less arbitrary test category, or
contractor. If so, this would be a very strong confirmation of the
feeling which has been prompting the reflections in part \ref{ch:II},
namely that for the purpose of having ``all-purpose''-models for
homotopy types (insofar as this is feasible), any strict test
category, or any contractor at any rate, is just as good as simplices
or cubes, which people have kept working with for the last twenty-five
years. If not, it will be quite interesting indeed to come a grasp of
what the relevant extra features of $\Simplex$ and the like are, and
how restrictive they are.
I doubt I will dive into these questions, still less come to a clear
picture, in the present part of the notes. Still, before leaving the
topic now, I would like to write down some hints I came upon while
doing my scratchwork on homotopy properties of \Ahat{}
categories. When looking for functors
\[A\to M\]
having some specified properties (such as being a test functor, or a
perfect one, etc.), we may view this question as meaning that we are
looking for an object with specified properties in the category
\[M^A =\bHom(A,M).\]
Presumably, this category is endowed with an asphericity or
contractibility structure if $M$ is (as we assume), presumably even a
modelizing one. This reminds me that as far as the notion of weak
equivalence goes, there may be even several non-equivalent ways of
finding such structure on $M^A$, one being modelizing, whereas
another, more useful one in some respects, is not. Thus, if $M$ is of
the type \Bhat, we may rewrite $M^A$ as
\[ M^A \equeq (A\op\times B)\uphat \equeq P\uphat;\]
hence we get the weak equivalence notion coming from $P\uphat$,
disregarding its product structure, which is modelizing indeed if $B$
is a test category and $A$ aspheric, hence $A\op\times B$ a test
category. The structure which should be of more relevance though for
our purpose should be a considerably finer one (namely with a smaller
set of weak equivalences), which we may\pspage{308} visualize best
maybe by writing
\[M^A=(\bHom(A\op,M\op))\op,\]
i.e., interpreting the dual of $M^A$ as the category of $A$-objects of
$M\op$, for instance (if $A=\Simplex$) as the dual of the category of
ss~objects of $M\op$. Now, Quillen has given handy conditions, in
terms of projectives of $M\op=N$, namely in terms of injectives of
$M$, for the category $\bHom(\Simplexop,N)$ of ss~objects of $N$ to
be a closed model category -- hence the dual category $M^A$ will turn
out as a closed model category too, under suitable conditions
involving existence of injective objects in $M$. These conditions are
satisfied for instance when $M$ is a topos, and notably when $M$ is of
the type \Bhat{} -- quite an interesting particular case indeed!
Assuming that $M$ is stable under both types of limits, so is $M^A$,
hence there is an initial and final object, and according to Quillen's
factorization axiom, the map from the former to the latter can be
factored through an object
\[\text{$F$ in $M^A$,}\quad\text{i.e.,}\quad F:A\to M,\]
which is \emph{cofibering}, and such that $F\to e$ is a \emph{trivial
fibration}. The idea is that these conditions mean more or less, at
any rate imply, that $F$ is a test functor.
I hit upon this ``way out'' while trying to construct test functors
from $\Simplex$ to any elementary modelizer \Bhat, in order to try and
check that \Bhat{} is a (semi)simplicial model category in the sense
of Quillen. The intuitive idea of constructing inductively the
components $F_n$ of $F$ was simple enough, still I got stuck in some
messiness and did not try to push through this way, all the less as
this naive approach had no chance of generalizing to the case of a
more or less general test category $A$. Of course, for the time being
Quillen's theorems, about certain categories $\bHom(A\op,N)$ being
closed model categories, is equally restricted to the case when
$A=\Simplex$, which looks as usual like a rather arbitrary
assumption. Thus, to ``test'' whether the feeling about \emph{any}
test category more or less being ``just as good'' as $\Simplex$, a
second point would be to see whether Quillen's theorems extend, which
presumably is going to be very close to the first point I raised.
I take this occasion to raise a third point -- where there is no
reason to restrict to an $M$ which is modelizing (neither was there
such reason before, when phrasing everything in terms of aspheric or
c-aspheric functors, rather than test functors\ldots). Namely,
assuming as\pspage{309} above that for any test category or contractor
$A$, $M^A$ or $M^{A\op}$ can be endowed with an asphericity structure
or a closed model structure, or at any rate with a set of weak
equivalences, hence a localization or corresponding ``homotopy
category''. What one would expect now is that up to (canonical)
equivalence, the latter does not depend upon the choice of $A$, and
hence is the same for arbitrary $A$ as when using $\Simplex$, i.e.,
simplices. This should be true at any rate for $M^{A\op}$ and when $M$
is a topos -- which means that \emph{Illusie's derived category
$\mathrm D_\bullet(X)$ of the category of semisimplicial sheaves on
a topos $X$, could be constructed by using, instead of ss~objects,
$A$-objects of the category of sheaves on $X$, where $A$ is any test
category.} This should be one of the main points to settle in part
\ref{ch:VII} of the notes.
There is a slight discrepancy though between the first point, about
existence of test functors with values in $M$, depending on a given
asphericity or contractibility structure of $M$, and the second and
the third, which seem to depend only on the category structure of
$M$. This is further evidence that the set of questions raised here is
still far from being clear in my mind yet. Stating them now, however
confusingly, is a first step towards clarification!
\bigbreak
\presectionfill\ondate{4.7.}\par
Just still two comments about the existence questions for test
functors, before going over to the next questions in our present
review. One is that for given $A$, to prove that for rather general
modelizing $M$ there exists a test functor from $A$ to $M$, we are
reduced to the case when $M$ is of the type \Bhat, where $B$ is a test
category -- namely, it is enough to take a $B$ such that there exists
a test functor $B\to M$. If we can even find a perfect test functor
from some $B$ to $M$, then likewise the existence question for perfect
test functors from $A$ to $M$ is reduced to the case when
$M=\Bhat$. These comments may be useful for applying to the situation
Quillen's model theory, as envisioned on the previous page -- as his
criteria for $\bHom(\Simplexop,N)$ to be a closed model category
apply when $N$ is the dual of a topos, for instance the dual of
\Bhat. The second comment is about Thomason's result concerning the
standard inclusion
\[i:\Simplex\hookrightarrow \Cat,\]
which can be expressed by saying that, although $i$ itself is not a
\emph{perfect} test functor, however, for any integer $n\ge2$, the
composition\pspage{310}
\[i_n=i_!\Sd^n \alpha: \Simplex\to\Simplexhat\to\Simplexhat\to\Cat\]
is a perfect test functor, where $\alpha:\Simplex\to\Simplexhat$ is
the canonical inclusion. It is tempting to surmise that this result is
not special to $i$ alone, but that it holds for a large class, if not
all, test functors from $\Simplex$ to asphericity or contractibility
modelizers. Here, $\Sd^n$ denotes the $n$'th iterate of the
barycentric subdivision functor $\Sd$ (following now the notation in
Thomason's paper, which presumably is standard, while I have been
using ``Bar'' in part \ref{ch:II} of the notes). Presumably, functors
analogous to $\Sd$ can be defined in any elementary modelizer \Ahat,
as suggested by the natural constructions arising in connection with
the factorization property for a closed model structure on
\Ahat. Thus, possibly there is a general method in view for deducing
perfect test functors from ordinary ones. However, it definitely seems
to me that the natural place for these existence questions is in part
\ref{ch:V} of the notes, as they seem intimately related to an
understanding of the homotopy structures of elementary modelizers, and
more specifically to the closed model structures to which such
modelizers give rise in various ways.
\starsbreak
Before proceeding, I would like to state still another afterthought to
the reflections of section \ref{sec:89}, about strictly generating
subcategories of a category $M$. I recall that a family of arrows in
$M$ with same target $X$
\[u_i:X_i\to X\]
is called \emph{strictly epimorphic}, if for every object $Y$ of $M$,
the corresponding map
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:90.starbis}
\Hom(X,Y) \to \prod_i\Hom(X_i,Y)\tag{*}
\end{equation}
is injective (which is expressed by saying that the family $(u_i)$ is
\emph{epimorphic}), and if \emph{moreover} the following obviously
necessary condition for an element $(f_i)$ of the product set of
\eqref{eq:90.starbis} to be in the image of the map \eqref{eq:90.starbis},
is also sufficient:
\begin{description}
\item[\namedlabel{cond:90.Comp}{(Comp)}]
For any two indices $i,j$ (possibly equal) and any commutative
square
\[\begin{tikzcd}[sep=tiny]
& T\ar[dl,"v_i"']\ar[dr,"v_j"] & \\
X_i\ar[dr,"u_i"'] & & X_j\ar[dl,"u_j"] \\
& X &
\end{tikzcd}\]
in $M$, the relation $f_iv_i=f_jv_j$ holds.
\end{description}
It is immediate that the condition for $(u_i)$ to be strictly
epimorphic\pspage{311} depends only on the \emph{sieve} $X_0$ of $X$
in $M$ (namely, the subobject of $X$, viewed as an object of
$M\uphat$) generated by the $u_i$'s -- we'll say also that this
\emph{sieve is strictly epimorphic}. One should beware that this does
not mean of course that $X_0\to X$ is epimorphic in $M\uphat$ (which
would imply $X_0=X$, i.e., that one of the $u_i$'s admits a section,
i.e., a right inverse); nor is it true that if a sieve is strictly
epimorphic, a large one should be so too -- which means that when
adding more arrows to a strictly epimorphic family, the family need
not stay str.\ ep.
We'll say that the family $(u_i)$ is \emph{universally strictly
epimorphic} if it is strictly epimorphic, i.e., the corresponding
sieve $X_0$ is, and if the latter remains so by arbitrary base change
$X'\to X$ in $M$, i.e., if the corresponding sieve $X'_0$ of $X'$ is
strictly epimorphic too. If the fibered products
\[X'_i = X_i\times_X X'\]
exist in $M$, this condition also means that the corresponding family
of maps
\[ u'_i:X'_i\to X'\]
is strictly epimorphic. The condition that $(u_i)$ be univ.\ str.\
epimorphic again depends only on the generated sieve, it is moreover
\emph{stable under base change}, and equally \emph{stable under adding
new arrows}, i.e., replacing a sieve in $X$ by a larger one.
It should be noted that if the fibered products $X_i\times_X X_j$
exist in $M$, then the compatibility condition \ref{cond:90.Comp}
above is equivalent to the one obtained by restricting to
\[T = X_i\times_X X_j,\]
with $v_i$ and $v_j$ the two projections.
Assume the indices $i$ are objects of a category $I$, and the $X_i$
are the values of a functor
\[I\to M,\]
and that the family of arrows $(u_i)$ turns $X$ into the direct limit
in $M$ of the $X_i$:
\[X=\varinjlim_i X_i,\]
then it follows immediately that the family $(u_j)$ is strictly
epimorphic.
After these terminological preliminaries, we're ready to give
the\pspage{312} following useful statement, which is lacking in
SGA~4\scrcomment{\textcite{SGA4vol1}}