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3-category
In mathematics, higher category theory is the part of category theory at a ''higher order'', which means that some equalities are replaced by explicit arrows in order to be able to explicitly study the structure behind those equalities. Higher category theory is often applied in algebraic topology (especially in homotopy theory), where one studies algebraic invariants of spaces, such as their fundamental weak ∞-groupoid. Strict higher categories An ordinary category has objects and morphisms, which are called 1-morphisms in the context of higher category theory. A 2-category generalizes this by also including 2-morphisms between the 1-morphisms. Continuing this up to ''n''-morphisms between (''n'' − 1)-morphisms gives an ''n''-category. Just as the category known as Cat, which is the category of small categories and functors is actually a 2-category with natural transformations as its 2-morphisms, the category ''n''-Cat of (small) ''n''-categories is actually a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tricategory
In mathematics, a tricategory is a kind of structure of category theory studied in higher-dimensional category theory. Whereas a weak 2-category is said to be a ''bicategory'', a weak 3-category is said to be a ''tricategory'' (Gordon, Power & Street 1995; Baez & Dolan 1996; Leinster 1998). Tetracategories are the corresponding notion in dimension four. Dimensions beyond three are seen as increasingly significant to the relationship between knot theory and physics. John Baez John Carlos Baez (; born June 12, 1961) is an American mathematical physicist and a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in Riverside, California. He has worked on spin foams in loop quantum gravity, appl ..., R. Gordon, A. J. Power and Ross Street have done much of the significant work with categories beyond bicategories thus far. See also * Weak ''n''-category References External linksThe Dimensional Ladder [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics with the major subdisciplines of number theory, algebra, geometry, and analysis, respectively. There is no general consensus among mathematicians about a common definition for their academic discipline. Most mathematical activity involves the discovery of properties of abstract objects and the use of pure reason to prove them. These objects consist of either abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicsentities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. A ''proof'' consists of a succession of applications of deductive rules to already established results. These results include previously proved theorems, axioms, andin case of abstraction from naturesome basic properties that are considered true starting points of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Locally Small Category
In mathematics, a category (sometimes called an abstract category to distinguish it from a concrete category) is a collection of "objects" that are linked by "arrows". A category has two basic properties: the ability to compose the arrows associatively and the existence of an identity arrow for each object. A simple example is the category of sets, whose objects are sets and whose arrows are functions. ''Category theory'' is a branch of mathematics that seeks to generalize all of mathematics in terms of categories, independent of what their objects and arrows represent. Virtually every branch of modern mathematics can be described in terms of categories, and doing so often reveals deep insights and similarities between seemingly different areas of mathematics. As such, category theory provides an alternative foundation for mathematics to set theory and other proposed axiomatic foundations. In general, the objects and arrows may be abstract entities of any kind, and the no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bicategory
In mathematics, a bicategory (or a weak 2-category) is a concept in category theory used to extend the notion of category to handle the cases where the composition of morphisms is not (strictly) associative, but only associative ''up to'' an isomorphism. The notion was introduced in 1967 by Jean Bénabou. Bicategories may be considered as a weakening of the definition of 2-categories. A similar process for 3-categories leads to tricategories, and more generally to weak ''n''-categories for ''n''-categories. Definition Formally, a bicategory B consists of: * objects ''a'', ''b'', ... called 0-''cells''; * morphisms ''f'', ''g'', ... with fixed source and target objects called 1-''cells''; * "morphisms between morphisms" ρ, σ, ... with fixed source and target morphisms (which should have themselves the same source and the same target), called 2-''cells''; with some more structure: * given two objects ''a'' and ''b'' there is a category B(''a'', ''b'') whose objects are the 1- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hom-set
In mathematics, particularly in category theory, a morphism is a structure-preserving map from one mathematical structure to another one of the same type. The notion of morphism recurs in much of contemporary mathematics. In set theory, morphisms are functions; in linear algebra, linear transformations; in group theory, group homomorphisms; in topology, continuous functions, and so on. In category theory, ''morphism'' is a broadly similar idea: the mathematical objects involved need not be sets, and the relationships between them may be something other than maps, although the morphisms between the objects of a given category have to behave similarly to maps in that they have to admit an associative operation similar to function composition. A morphism in category theory is an abstraction of a homomorphism. The study of morphisms and of the structures (called "objects") over which they are defined is central to category theory. Much of the terminology of morphisms, as well as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homotopy
In topology, a branch of mathematics, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic (from grc, ὁμός "same, similar" and "place") if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy (, ; , ) between the two functions. A notable use of homotopy is the definition of homotopy groups and cohomotopy groups, important invariants in algebraic topology. In practice, there are technical difficulties in using homotopies with certain spaces. Algebraic topologists work with compactly generated spaces, CW complexes, or spectra. Formal definition Formally, a homotopy between two continuous functions ''f'' and ''g'' from a topological space ''X'' to a topological space ''Y'' is defined to be a continuous function H: X \times ,1\to Y from the product of the space ''X'' with the unit interval , 1to ''Y'' such that H(x,0) = f(x) and H(x,1) = g(x) for all x \in X. If we think of the second ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parameterization
In mathematics, and more specifically in geometry, parametrization (or parameterization; also parameterisation, parametrisation) is the process of finding parametric equations of a curve, a surface, or, more generally, a manifold or a variety, defined by an implicit equation. The inverse process is called implicitization. "To parameterize" by itself means "to express in terms of parameters". Parametrization is a mathematical process consisting of expressing the state of a system, process or model as a function of some independent quantities called parameters. The state of the system is generally determined by a finite set of coordinates, and the parametrization thus consists of one function of several real variables for each coordinate. The number of parameters is the number of degrees of freedom of the system. For example, the position of a point that moves on a curve in three-dimensional space is determined by the time needed to reach the point when starting from a fixed orig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Path (topology)
In mathematics, a path in a topological space X is a continuous function from the closed unit interval , 1/math> into X. Paths play an important role in the fields of topology and mathematical analysis. For example, a topological space for which there exists a path connecting any two points is said to be path-connected. Any space may be broken up into path-connected components. The set of path-connected components of a space X is often denoted \pi_0(X). One can also define paths and loops in pointed spaces, which are important in homotopy theory. If X is a topological space with basepoint x_0, then a path in X is one whose initial point is x_0. Likewise, a loop in X is one that is based at x_0. Definition A ''curve'' in a topological space X is a continuous function f : J \to X from a non-empty and non-degenerate interval J \subseteq \R. A in X is a curve f : , b\to X whose domain , b/math> is a compact non-degenerate interval (meaning a is homeomorphic to , 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topology
In mathematics, topology (from the Greek language, Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a mathematical object, geometric object that are preserved under Continuous function, continuous Deformation theory, deformations, such as Stretch factor, stretching, Twist (mathematics), twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing holes, opening holes, tearing, gluing, or passing through itself. A topological space is a set (mathematics), set endowed with a structure, called a ''Topology (structure), topology'', which allows defining continuous deformation of subspaces, and, more generally, all kinds of continuity (mathematics), continuity. Euclidean spaces, and, more generally, metric spaces are examples of a topological space, as any distance or metric defines a topology. The deformations that are considered in topology are homeomorphisms and homotopy, homotopies. A property that is invariant under such deformations is a topological property. Basic exampl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nonabelian Algebraic Topology
In mathematics, nonabelian algebraic topology studies an aspect of algebraic topology that involves (inevitably noncommutative) higher-dimensional algebras. Many of the higher-dimensional algebraic structures are noncommutative and, therefore, their study is a very significant part of nonabelian category theory, and also of Nonabelian Algebraic Topology (NAAT), which generalises to higher dimensions ideas coming from the fundamental group. Such algebraic structures in dimensions greater than 1 develop the nonabelian character of the fundamental group, and they are in a precise sense ''‘more nonabelian than the groups. These noncommutative, or more specifically, nonabelian structures reflect more accurately the geometrical complications of higher dimensions than the known homology and homotopy groups commonly encountered in classical algebraic topology. An important part of nonabelian algebraic topology is concerned with the properties and applications of homotopy groupoids and f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homology Theory
In mathematics, homology is a general way of associating a sequence of algebraic objects, such as abelian groups or modules, with other mathematical objects such as topological spaces. Homology groups were originally defined in algebraic topology. Similar constructions are available in a wide variety of other contexts, such as abstract algebra, groups, Lie algebras, Galois theory, and algebraic geometry. The original motivation for defining homology groups was the observation that two shapes can be distinguished by examining their holes. For instance, a circle is not a disk because the circle has a hole through it while the disk is solid, and the ordinary sphere is not a circle because the sphere encloses a two-dimensional hole while the circle encloses a one-dimensional hole. However, because a hole is "not there", it is not immediately obvious how to define a hole or how to distinguish different kinds of holes. Homology was originally a rigorous mathematical method for defi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Product (category Theory)
In category theory, the product of two (or more) objects in a category is a notion designed to capture the essence behind constructions in other areas of mathematics such as the Cartesian product of sets, the direct product of groups or rings, and the product of topological spaces. Essentially, the product of a family of objects is the "most general" object which admits a morphism to each of the given objects. Definition Product of two objects Fix a category C. Let X_1 and X_2 be objects of C. A product of X_1 and X_2 is an object X, typically denoted X_1 \times X_2, equipped with a pair of morphisms \pi_1 : X \to X_1, \pi_2 : X \to X_2 satisfying the following universal property: * For every object Y and every pair of morphisms f_1 : Y \to X_1, f_2 : Y \to X_2, there exists a unique morphism f : Y \to X_1 \times X_2 such that the following diagram commutes: *: Whether a product exists may depend on C or on X_1 and X_2. If it does exist, it is unique up to canonical isomor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
