arXiv subjects

Thibaut Benjamin

Publications and source records attributed to Thibaut Benjamin.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Computads with invertible generators for weak {\omega}-categories

We extend the notion of computads for weak $\omega$-categories to allow marking certain generators as invertible, and describe inductively the free $\omega$-categories they generate. This gives a simple, finite description of the walking equivalences, the $\omega$-categories classifying invertible cells. We then construct a coreflection from generalised to ordinary computads, preserving the generated $\omega$-categories, and conclude that $\omega$-categories generated by generalised computads are cofibrant. Finally, we study the subcategory of generalised computads and generator-preserving morphisms, and show that it is a presheaf topos, similarly to the case of ordinary computads.

math.CT↗

arXiv2026

A type theory for invertibility in weak $\omega$-categories

We present a conservative extension ICaTT of the dependent type theory CaTT for weak $\omega$-categories with a type witnessing coinductive invertibility of cells. This extension allows for a concise description of the "walking equivalence" as a context, and of a set of maps characterising $\omega$-equifibrations as substitutions. We provide an implementation of our theory, which we use to formalise basic properties of invertible cells. These properties allow us to give semantics of ICaTT in marked weak $\omega$-categories, building a fibrant marked $\omega$-category out of every model of ICaTT.

math.CT↗

arXiv2025

AdapTT: Functoriality for Dependent Type Casts

The ability to cast values between related types is a leitmotiv of many flavors of dependent type theory, such as observational type theories, subtyping, or cast calculi for gradual typing. These casts all exhibit a common structural behavior that boils down to the pervasive functoriality of type formers. We propose and extensively study a type theory, called AdapTT, which makes systematic and precise this idea of functorial type formers, with respect to an abstract notion of adapters relating types. Leveraging descriptions for functorial inductive types in AdapTT, we derive structural laws for type casts on general inductive type formers.

cs.PL↗

arXiv2025

Beyond Eckmann-Hilton: Commutativity in Higher Categories

We show that in a weak globular $\omega$-category, all composition operations are equivalent and commutative for cells with sufficiently degenerate boundary, which can be considered a higher-dimensional generalisation of the Eckmann-Hilton argument. Our results are formulated constructively in a type-theoretic presentation of $\omega$-categories. The heart of our construction is a family of padding and repadding techniques, which gives an equivalence relation between cells which are not necessarily parallel. Our work has been implemented, allowing us to explicitly compute suitable witnesses, which grow rapidly in complexity as the dimension increases. These witnesses can be exported as inhabitants of identity types in Homotopy Type Theory, and hence are of relevance in synthetic homotopy theory.

math.CT↗

arXiv2025

Naturality for higher-dimensional path types

We define a naturality construction for the operations of weak omega-categories, as a meta-operation in a dependent type theory. Our construction has a geometrical motivation as a local tensor product with a directed interval, and behaves logically as a globular analogue of Reynolds parametricity. Our construction operates as a ``power tool'' to support construction of terms with geometrical structure, and we use it to define composition operations for cylinders and cones in omega-categories. The machinery can generate terms of high complexity, and we have implemented our construction in a proof assistant, which verifies that the generated terms have the correct type. All our results can be exported to homotopy type theory, allowing the explicit computation of complex path type inhabitants.

math.CT↗

arXiv2024

Generating Higher Identity Proofs in Homotopy Type Theory

Finster and Mimram have defined a dependent type theory called CaTT, which describes the structure of omega-categories. Types in homotopy type theory with their higher identity types form weak omega-groupoids, so they are in particular weak omega-categories. In this article, we show that this principle makes homotopy type theory into a model of CaTT, by defining a translation principle that interprets an operation on the cell of an omega-category as an operation on higher identity types. We then illustrate how this translation allows to leverage several mechanisation principles that are available in CaTT, to reduce the proof effort required to derive results about the structure of identity types, such as the existence of an Eckmann-Hilton cell.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2024

Invertible cells in $\omega$-categories

We study coinductive invertibility of cells in weak $\omega$-categories. We use the inductive presentation of weak $\omega$-categories via an adjunction with the category of computads, and show that invertible cells are closed under all operations of $\omega$-categories. Moreover, we give a simple criterion for invertibility in computads, together with an algorithm computing the data witnessing the invertibility, including the inverse, and the cancellation data.

math.CT↗

arXiv2024

CaTT contexts are finite computads

Two novel descriptions of weak {\omega}-categories have been recently proposed, using type-theoretic ideas. The first one is the dependent type theory CaTT whose models are {\omega}-categories. The second is a recursive description of a category of computads together with an adjunction to globular sets, such that the algebras for the induced monad are again {\omega}-categories. We compare the two descriptions by showing that there exits a fully faithful morphism of categories with families from the syntactic category of CaTT to the opposite of the category of computads, which gives an equivalence on the subcategory of finite computads. We derive a more direct connection between the category of models of CaTT and the category of algebras for the monad on globular sets, induced by the adjunction with computads.

math.CT↗

arXiv2024

Hom $\omega$-categories of a computad are free

We provide a new description of the hom functor on weak $\omega$-categories, and we show that it admits a left adjoint that we call the suspension functor. We then show that the hom functor preserves the property of being free on a computad, in contrast to the hom functor for strict $\omega$-categories. Using the same technique, we define the opposite of an $\omega$-category with respect to a set of dimensions, and we show that this construction also preserves the property of being free on a computad. Finally, we show that the constructions of opposites and homs commute.

math.CT↗

arXiv2021

Formalization of dependent type theory: The example of CaTT

We present the type theory CaTT, originally introduced by Finster and Mimram to describe globular weak $\omega$-categories, and we formalise this theory in the language of homotopy type theory. Most of the studies about this type theory assume that it is well-formed and satisfy the usual syntactic properties that dependent type theories enjoy, without being completely clear and thorough about what these properties are exactly. We use the formalisation that we provide to list and formally prove all of these meta-properties, thus filling a gap in the foundational aspect. We discuss the key aspects of the formalisation inherent to the theory CaTT, in particular that the absence of definitional equality greatly simplify the study, but also that specific side conditions are challenging to properly model. We present the formalisation in a way that not only handles the type theory CaTT but also all the related type theories that share the same structure, and in particular we show that this formalisation provides a proper ground to the study of the theory MCaTT which describes the globular, monoidal weak $\omega$-categories. The article is accompanied by a development in the proof assistant Agda to actually check the formalisation that we present.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2021

Monoidal weak omega-categories as models of a type theory

Weak $\omega$-categories are notoriously difficult to define because of the very intricate nature of their axioms. Various approaches have been explored, based on different shapes given to the cells. Interestingly, homotopy type theory encompasses a definition of weak $\omega$-groupoid in a globular setting, since every type carries such a structure. Starting from this remark, Brunerie could extract this definition of globular weak $\omega$\nobreakdash-groupoids, formulated as a type theory. By refining its rules, Finster and Mimram have then defined a type theory called CaTT, whose models are weak $\omega$-categories. Here, we generalize this approach to monoidal weak $\omega$-categories. Based on the principle that they should be equivalent to weak $\omega$-categories with only one $0$-cell, we are able to derive a type theory MCaTT whose models are monoidal categories. This requires changing the rules of the theory in order to encode the information carried by the unique $0$-cell. The correctness of the resulting type theory is shown by defining a pair of translations between our type theory MCaTT and the type theory CaTT. Our main contribution is to show that these translations relate the models of our type theory to the models of the type theory CaTT consisting of $\omega$-categories with only one $0$-cell, by analyzing in details how the notion of models interact with the structural rules of both type theories.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2021

Globular weak $\omega$-categories as models of a type theory

We study the dependent type theory CaTT, introduced by Finster and Mimram, which presents the theory of weak $\omega$-categories, following the idea that type theories can be considered as presentations of generalized algebraic theories. Our main contribution is a formal proof that the models of this type theory correspond precisely to weak $\omega$-categories, as defined by Maltsiniotis, by generalizing a definition proposed by Grothendieck for weak $\omega$-groupoids: Those are defined as suitable presheaves over a cat-coherator, which is a category encoding structure expected to be found in an $\omega$-category. This comparison is established by proving the initiality conjecture for the type theory CaTT, in a way which suggests the possible generalization to a nerve theorem for a certain class of dependent type theories

cs.LO↗