Definition 2.1. For , a space
is called -truncated if for all
and all .
In addition, a space is called -truncated if and only if it is contractible and it is called -truncated if and only if it is either contractible or empty.
We denote by the full subcategory of spanned by the -truncated spaces.
The inclusion admits a left adjoint and we call the unit of the adjunction the -truncation map.
This leads to the following definition in -category theory.
Definition 2.2. Let be an integer. An essentially
-category is an -category such that for
all , the mapping space
is -truncated. We denote by the full subcategory
of spanned by essentially -categories.
Example 2.3. An -category is an essentially -category
if and only if it lies in the essential image of the nerve functor
and it is an essentially -category if
and only if it is equivalent to the nerve of a poset.
One might hope that for an -category , the condition of being an essentially -category would coincide with the condition of begin a -truncated object of the presentable -category in the sense of T.5.5.6.1. This turns out to be false. The later condition is equivalent to both spaces and being -truncated, while the former to the -truncatedness of the projection map
It can be deduced that a -truncated object of is an essentially -category and that an essentially -category is a -truncated object of . To see that both converses are false, consider on the one hand a -truncated space as an -groupoid, and on the other, an -category with two objects and a -truncated space of maps from the first to the second (and no other non-trivial maps).
In T.2.3.4, Lurie develops the theory of -categories, which are a strict model for essentially -categories. We begin by recalling some basic definitions and properties. First, we introduce the following definition/notation (which is a variation on notation T.2.3.4.11).
Notation 2.4.Let and be simplicial sets. We define
by the following pushout diagram
(2)
Let and be simplicial sets. Given two maps
such that we obtain a map .
A homotopy relative to (or โrel. โ for short) is an extension
of to .
(3)
Given inclusions of simplicial sets and a simplicial
set , let be the set of maps for
which there exists an extension to . We denote by
the set obtained from by identifying maps that
are homotopic rel. .
Remark 2.5. Let be an -category, let be an inclusion
of simplicial sets, and consider such that .
By the discussion at the beginning of T.2.3.4, a homotopy from
to rel. is the same as an equivalence from to
as objects of the -category that is given as a pullback
Therefore, the existence of a homotopy rel. is an equivalence
relation. We note that the above diagram is also a homotopy
pullback in the Joyal model structure as the right vertical map is
a categorical fibration and all objects are fibrant.
Definition 2.6(T.2.3.4.1). Let be a simplicial set and let be an integer. We will say that is a -category if it is an -category and the following additional conditions are satisfied:
(1)
Given a pair of maps , if and are homotopic relative to , then .
Example 2.7. By T.2.3.4.5, an -category is a -category if and only if it is isomorphic to the nerve of an ordinary category. By T.2.3.4.3, it is a -category if and only if it is isomorphic to the nerve of a poset (compare Example 2.3)
Next, we shall recall the definition of the -homotopy category of an -category .
Using the notation for the -th skeleton
of a simplicial set , we recall the following construction.
Lemma 2.8(T.2.3.4.12).For , given an -category ,
there exists an essentially unique simplicial set ,
such that for every simplicial set , we have a bijection
that is natural in . We denote the canonical map by .
Using the above construction, we have the following definition:
Definition 2.9. Given an -category and an integer , we define the -homotopy category of to be of 2.8 when and
(1)
For we set .
(2)
For we set with the unique map .
(3)
For , we first define a pre-ordered set
with the same objects as and the relation
if and only if . Then
we define to be the nerve of the poset obtained
from by identifying isomorphic objects.
There is a canonical map
defined as the composition of
with the nerve of the functor that takes each object in the homotopy
category to its class in (with the unique definition on morphisms).
Warning 2.10. Note that an -category is an essentially
-category if and only if all objects of are -truncated
in the sense of T.5.5.6.1. Hence, another way to associate an essentially
-category with an -category is to consider
the full subcategory spanned by the -truncated
objects. For a presentable -category, this is denoted by
in T.5.5.6.1 and called the -truncation of
. We warn the reader that the two essentially -categories
and are usually very
different. For example, when is the -category
of spaces, is the ordinary homotopy category of
spaces, while is equivalent to the ordinary
category of sets.
Proof.For this is the content of T.2.3.4.12. For this is
trivial. For , (1) and (2) are obvious from the definition.
For (3) observe that we have a factorization of the map in question:
where the second map is an isomorphism (from the claim for ). Therefore, we can assume that is an ordinary category and is a poset and hence both simplicial sets are discrete.
The result now follows from the observation that every functor factors uniquely through .
โ
Proof.By T.2.3.4.18, every essentially -category is equivalent to a
-category and for every -category , the map
is an isomorphism by 2.11. Restricting to the maximal Kan sub-complexes, the map of simplicial sets
is a homotopy equivalence. It now follows that exhibits as the
-localization of in the sense of T.5.2.7.6. Thus, the claim about the existence of a left adjoint follows
from T.5.2.7.8 and the claim about the unit follows from the proof of T.5.2.7.8.
โ
The main goal of this section is to show that for every -category , the -category is obtained (as one would expect) by -truncation of the mapping spaces.
The main ingredient is the following explicit description of the right mapping space in the -homotopy category.
Proposition 2.13.Let and let
be an -category. For every , there is
a canonical isomorphism of simplicial sets rendering the
following diagram commutative:
where and are the obvious maps.
We defer the rather technical proof of 2.13
to the end of the section. Assuming 2.13,
we get
Proof.It is clear that is essentially surjective since it
is surjective on objects. Let be two objects.
Since the map
is represented by the map
it will be enough to show that for every Kan complex , the map
is a -truncation map. We prove
this by induction. For it is clear. For , recall
that has the homotopy type of the
path space between and in when viewed as a space.
Thus, by induction, is a map of spaces that is surjective
on and induces the -truncation map on path spaces
Theorem 2.15.The inclusion functor admits
a left adjoint such that for every -category , the value of on is the -homotopy category of , the unit transformation
is essentially surjective, and for all , the map of spaces
To prove 2.13, we begin by recalling the
definitions of the โrightโ and โmiddleโ mapping spaces.
Let be the functor given
by , with the natural map
taking to the image of and to the cone point. Recall
that by the definition of the right mapping space (right before T.1.2.2.3),
we have
where the subscript in the right hand side means
we take the subset of maps that restrict to on
. Since preserves colimits, it follows that
for every simplicial set , we have a canonical isomorphism
Similarly, we can construct the โmiddle mapping spaceโ. Let
be the functor given by .
This also comes with a canonical map ,
and similarly, from the definition of the middle mapping space (right
after remark T.1.2.2.5), we have
There is a canonical categorical equivalence
that induces a categorical equivalence
that induces a Kan equivalence
of Kan complexes.
For , we denote by
the corresponding map
in the definition of . We
also denote by and
the corresponding map in the definition of .
We begin with the following technical lemma.
Proof.We start with the equivalence . The
first part follows from the fact that is a monomorphism and
the second part follows from the fact that is a homotopy equivalence of Kan complexes.
In the equivalence ,
the first part follows from the fact that
is an epimorphism and the second part can be seen as follows: the
maps are
homotopic rel if and only if they are equivalent
as elements of the -category that is the fiber over
(which is also a homotopy fiber) of the categorical fibration .
Since we have functorial categorical equivalences
and , this is the same
as showing that the corresponding maps
are equivalent in the fiber of
(which is also the homotopy fiber). This in turn is the same as having
homotopic rel. . It is left
to show the equivalence . The
first part is clear. The second part amounts to showing the equivalence of two extension problems.
If , we get a map from
to
and and are homotopic rel. if and only if
extends to the relative cylinder . In terms
of maps to , this is equivalent to the extension problem
On the other hand, from
we get a map from
to and and are homotopic
rel. if and only if it extends to the relative cylinder
. By 2.16
for , the two extension problems
are isomorphic.
โ
Proof (of 2.13).For this follows directly from the definitions, and so we assume that . Let be a simplicial set. On the one hand,
where subscript indicates that we take only
the subset of maps that restrict to on
(observe that this is independent of the representative as ).
On the other hand,
We will argue that this last set is in natural bijection with the
set
First, by definition of the right mapping space we have a natural
bijection between maps of the form and maps of the form
restricting
to on .
Second, extends to if and only if extends
to . Likewise, it is clear that two maps
agree on if and only if the corresponding maps
agree on . Hence, the only thing we
need to show is that and are homotopic rel. if
and only if and are homotopic rel.
and this follows from in 2.17.
It remains to observe that for every simplicial set and every we have a canonical
isomorphism Hence,
we get a natural bijection
and therefore an isomorphism .
Finally, we need to show that the isomorphism we have constructed is compatible with
the maps and
.
For this, consider a map .
The composition is represented by the restriction ,
which corresponds to the map .
On the other hand, the composition corresponds to
the restriction of to
and these are identified by .
โ