Theorem 3.7. Let and be categories. There are natural isomorphisms
of simplicial spaces. The functor is a full embedding of categories. Furthermore, a functor is an equivalence of categories if and only if is a weak equivalence of simplicial spaces.
We give a construction which embeds the category of categories inside the category of simplicial spaces and which carries equivalences of categories (and only equivalences) to weak equivalences of simplicial spaces.
Given a category , define a simplicial space , where denotes the maximal subgroupoid. Thus, the th space of is . We call the classifying diagram of .
Let denote the category having distinct objects, and such that there exists a unique isomorphism between any two objects. We suppose further that there is a chosen inclusion . Then the set of -simplices of the th space of corresponds to the set of functors . Note that there is a natural isomorphism
| (3.6) |
(where the right-hand side is an -fold fiber-product), and that the natural map is a simplicial covering space, with fiber over any vertex naturally isomorphic to the set .
If the category is a groupoid, then the natural map , where is viewed as a constant simplicial space, is a weak equivalence; this follows from the fact that for a groupoid, , , and , are equivalent categories. It is therefore natural to regard the classifying diagram construction as a generalization of the notion of a classifying space of a groupoid.
The following theorem says that is a full embedding of categories which preserves internal hom-objects, and furthermore takes a functor to a weak equivalence if and only if it is an equivalence of categories.
Theorem 3.7. Let and be categories. There are natural isomorphisms
of simplicial spaces. The functor is a full embedding of categories. Furthermore, a functor is an equivalence of categories if and only if is a weak equivalence of simplicial spaces.
Proof. That preserves products is clear.
To show that is an isomorphism, we must show that for each this map induces a one-to-one correspondence between functors and maps . By (3.8) it will suffice to show this for the case ; that is, to show that functors are in one-to-one correspondence with maps , or in other words, that is a full embedding of categories.
To see that is a full embedding, note that any map is determined by how it acts on the th and st spaces of . The result follows from a straightforward argument using (3.2) and the fact that is a simplicial covering map such that for both and .
It is immediate that naturally isomorphic functors induce simplicially homotopic maps of simplicial spaces since by (3.8), and thus an equivalence of categories induces a weak equivalence of simplicial spaces. To prove the converse, note that (3.9) will show that is Reedy fibrant, and in particular is a Kan complex. Therefore, if is a weak equivalence of simplicial spaces it must be a simplicial homotopy equivalence. Furthermore, the homotopy inverse is a -simplex of and the simplicial homotopies are -simplices of and ; by what we have already shown these correspond precisely to a functor and natural isomorphisms and , as desired. ∎
Proof. The first isomorphism follows from the fact that preserves products and that . The second isomorphism may be derived from the fact that for any category , and thus in particular when . ∎
Lemma 3.9. If is a category, then is a Reedy fibrant simplicial space.
Proof. We must show that
is a fibration for each . We have the following cases:
is a Kan complex by (3.2).
is a simplicial covering space with discrete fiber, and thus is a fibration.
is isomorphic to an inclusion of path-components, and so is a fibration.
is an isomorphism, and thus a fibration.
∎
Original source: arXiv:math/9811037v3
Original source · math/9811037v3