arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Ronald Brown.
The aim of this paper is to explain how, through the work of a number of people, some algebraic structures related to groupoids have yielded algebraic descriptions of homotopy n-types. Further, these descriptions are explicit, and in some cases completely computable, in a way not possible with the traditional Postnikov systems, or with other models, such as simplicial groups.
We publicise a proof of the Jordan Curve Theorem which relates it to the Phragmen-Brouwer Property, and whose proof uses the van Kampen theorem for the fundamental groupoid on a set of base points.
This paper illustrates the themes of the title in terms of: van Kampen type theorems for the fundamental groupoid; holonomy and monodromy groupoids; and higher homotopy groupoids. Interaction with work of the writer is explored.
In this paper we show how string rewriting methods can be applied to give a new method of computing double cosets. Previous methods for double cosets were enumerative and thus restricted to finite examples. Our rewriting methods do not suffer this restriction and we present some examples of infinite double coset systems which can now easily be solved using our approach. Even when both enumerative and rewriting techniques are present, our rewriting methods will be competitive because they i) do not require the preliminary calculation of cosets; and ii) as with single coset problems, there are many examples for which rewriting is more effective than enumeration. Automata provide the means for identifying expressions for normal forms in infinite situations and we show how they may be constructed in this setting. Further, related results on logged string rewriting for monoid presentations are exploited to show how witnesses for the computations can be provided and how information about the subgroups and the relations between them can be extracted. Finally, we discuss how the double coset problem is a special case of the problem of computing induced actions of categories which demonstrates that our rewriting methods are applicable to a much wider class of problems than just the double coset problem.
This talk gave a sketch of the contents and background to a book with the title `Nonabelian algebraic topology' being written under support of a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship (2002-2004) by the speaker and Rafael Sivera (Valencia). The aim is to give in one place a full account of work by R. Brown and P.J. Higgins since the 1970s which defines and applies crossed complexes and cubical higher homotopy groupoids in algebraic topology and group cohomology.
This is a slightly edited version of the transparencies for a seminar at UCL, May 7, 2003. It is intended to give a quick view of background, ideas, and some calculations, in the applicatioon of some non commutative methods to algebraic topology.
The main result is that the fundamental groupoid of the orbit space of a discontinuous action of a discrete group on a Hausdorff space which admits a universal cover is the orbit groupoid of the fundamental groupoid of the space. We also describe work of Higgins and of Taylor which makes this result usable for calculations. As an example, we compute the fundamental group of the symmetric square of a space. The main result, which is related to work of Armstrong, is due to Brown and Higgins in 1985 and was published in sections 9 and 10 of Chapter 9 of the first author's book on Topology (Ellis Horwood, 1988). This is a somewhat edited, and in one point (on normal closures) corrected, version of those sections. Since the book is out of print, and the result seems not well known, we now advertise it here. It is hoped that this account will also allow wider views of these results, for example in topos theory and descent theory. Because of its provenance, this should be read as a graduate text rather than an article. The Exercises should be regarded as further propositions for which we leave the proofs to the reader. It is expected that this material will be part of a new edition of the book.
Our main aim is to associate a holonomy Lie groupoid to the connective structure of an abelian gerbe. The construction has analogies with a procedure for the holonomy Lie groupoid of a foliation, in using a locally Lie groupoid and a globalisation procedure. We show that path connections and 2-holonomy on line bundles may be formulated using the notion of a connection pair on a double category, due to Brown-Spencer, but now formulated in terms of double groupoids using the thin fundamental groupoids introduced by Caetano-Mackaay-Picken. To obtain a locally Lie groupoid to which globalisation applies, we use methods of local subgroupoids as developed by Brown-$\dot{\rm I}$çen-Mucuk.
We explain how the computation of induced crossed modules allows the computation of certain homotopy 2-types and, in particular, second homotopy groups. We discuss various issues involved in computing induced crossed modules and give some examples and applications.
The category of crossed complexes gives an algebraic model of the category of $CW$-complexes and cellular maps. We explain basic results on crossed complexes which allow the computation of free crossed resolutions of graph products of groups, given free crossed resolutions of the individual groups.
The category of crossed complexes gives an algebraic model of CW-complexes and cellular maps. Free crossed resolutions of groups contain information on a presentation of the group as well as higher homological information. We relate this to the problem of calculating non-abelian extensions. We show how the strong properties of this category allow for the computation of free crossed resolutions for amalgamated sums and HNN-extensions of groups, and so obtain computations of higher homotopical syzygies in these cases.
We show the equivalence of two kinds of strict multiple category, namely the well known globular omega-categories, and the cubical omega-categories with connections.
Previous work (Pradines, 1966, Aof and Brown, 1992) has given a setting for a holonomy Lie groupoid of a locally Lie groupoid. Here we develop analogous 2-dimensional notions starting from a locally Lie crossed module of groupoids. This involves replacing the Ehresmann notion of a local smooth coadmissible section of a groupoid by a local smooth coadmissible homotopy (or free derivation) for the crossed module case. The development also has to use corresponding notions for certain types of double groupoids. This leads to a holonomy Lie groupoid rather than double groupoid, but one which involves the 2-dimensional information.
We outline the construction of the holonomy groupoid of a locally Lie groupoid and the monodromy groupoid of a Lie groupoid. These specialise to the well known holonomy and monodromy groupoids of a foliation, when the groupoid is just an equivalence relation.
The notion of local equivalence relation on a topological space is generalised to that of local subgroupoid. The main result is the construction of the holonomy and monodromy groupoids of certain Lie local subgroupoids, and the formulation of a monodromy principle on the extendibility of local Lie morphisms.
The basic method of rewriting for words in a free monoid given a monoid presentation is extended to rewriting for paths in a free category given a `Kan extension presentation'. This is related to work of Carmody-Walters on the Todd-Coxeter procedure for Kan extensions, but allows for the output data to be infinite, described by a language. The result also allows rewrite methods to be applied in a greater range of situations and examples, in terms of induced actions of monoids, categories, groups or groupoids.
We give formulae for a module presentation of the module of identities among relations for a presentation of a group, in terms of information on 0- and 1-combings of the Cayley graph. This is seen as a special case of extending a partial free crossed resolution of a group given a partial contracting homotopy of its universal cover.
Results on the finiteness of induced crossed modules are proved both algebraically and topologically. Using the Van Kampen type theorem for the fundamental crossed module, applications are given to the 2-types of mapping cones of classifying spaces of groups. Calculations of the cohomology classes of some finite crossed modules are given, using crossed complex methods.