Very good homogeneous functors in manifold calculus

Abstract

Let M be a smooth manifold, and let O(M) be the poset of open subsets of M. Let C be a category that has a zero object and all small limits. A homogeneous functor (in the sense of manifold calculus) of degree k from O(M) to C is called very good if it sends isotopy equivalences to isomorphisms. In this paper we show that the category VGHF of such functors is equivalent to the category of contravariant functors from the fundamental groupoid of Conf(k, M) to C, where Conf(k, M) stands for the unordered configuration space of k points in M. As a consequence of this result, we show that the category VGHF is equivalent to the category of representations of the fundamental group of Conf(k, M) in C, provided that Conf(k, M) is connected. We also introduce a subcategory of vector bundles that we call very good vector bundles, and we show that it is abelian, and equivalent to a certain category of very good functors.