Formulating basic notions of finite group theory via the lifting property. As a tex file. We reformulate several basic notions in finite group theory in terms of iterations of the lifting property (orthogonality) with respect to particular morphisms. Our examples include the notions of a finite group being nilpotent, solvable, perfect, torsion-free; $p$-groups, and prime-to-$p$ groups, perfect core, Fitting subgroup, and $p$-core. We also reformulate in similar terms the conjecture that a localisation of a nilpotent group is nilpotent.
We also offer a couple of brief speculations on cognitive and AI aspects of this observation, particularly that in point-set topology some arguments read as diagram chasing computations with finite preorders.
An updated version with new examples in group theory--abelian, perfect, p-groups, groups of order prime to p, soluble (in finite groups), and Feit-Thompson theorem reformulated in terms of lifting properties.
Examples in topology include the notions of: compact, discrete, connected, and totally disconnected spaces, dense image, induced topology, and separation axioms. Examples in algebra include: finite groups being nilpotent, solvable, torsion-free, p-groups, and prime-to-p groups; injective and projective modules; injective, surjective, and split homomorphisms.
We include some speculations on the wider significance of this, particularly in formalisation of mathematics. A draft. As a text file (more convenient for some readers).
We define fully faithful embeddings of the category of topological spaces and that of uniform spaces into the category of simplicial objects of the category of filters, and, based on this, use these two functors to reformulate several elementary notions including that of being compact, complete, a Cauchy sequence, and equicontinuity. We also define of quasi-geodesic metric spaces with large scale Lipschitz maps, or rather coarse spaces, into the category of simplicial objects of a category of filters with another kind of morphisms.
A decidable equational fragment of category theory without automorphisms. 6 pages, joint with Alexandre Luzgarev and Vladimir Sosnilo. A preliminary draft (a beta-version; read at your own risk!) We record and slightly extend an observation of Nikolai Durov that there is a decidable equational fragment of category theory without automorphisms. The first public version (pre July 2014)
Exercises de style: A homotopy theory for set theory. Part I and II., joint with Assaf Hasson, 51 page, a shortened exposition of the two preprints below
Exercises de style: A homotopy theory for set theory. Part I., same in djvu, joint with Assaf Hasson, 36 pages, a paper explaining the main construction but not set theoretic applications.
Exercises de style: A homotopy theory for set theory. Part II., same in djvu, joint with Assaf Hasson, 36 pages, a paper about set theoretic applications
The univalence axiom for posetal model categories. A shortened version. joint with Assaf Hasson and Itay Kaplan, 12 pages, a note where we observe that the set-theoretic model category constructed in "Exercises de style" delivers an example of the Univalence Axiom, albeit in a rather trivial way.
A little place to discuss QtNaamen (typos, corrections, questions...)
A description/summary of the preprints below:We construct a model category and use it to introduce homotopy-theoretic intuitions to set theory. Our main observation is that the homotopy invariant version of cardinality is the covering number of Shelah's PCF theory, and that other combinatorial objects, such as Shelah's revised power function - the cardinal function featuring in Shelah's revised GCH theorem - can be obtained using similar tools. We include a small "dictionary" for set theory in the model category QtNaamen, hoping it will help in finding more meaningful homotopy-theoretic intuitions in set theory.
Yuri Manin gives a nice description of some background relevant to the works above: 3.4. Quillen’s homotopical algebra and univalent foundations project. In his influential book [Qu] Quillen developed the idea that the natural language for homotopy theory should appeal not to the initial intuition of continuous deformation itself, but rather to a codified list of properties of category of topological spaces stressing those that are relevant for studying homotopy.
Quillen defined a closed model category as a category endowed with three special classes of morphisms: fibrations, cofibrations, and weak equivalences. The list of axioms to which these three classes of morphisms must satisfy is not long but structurally quite sophisticated. They can be easily defined in the category of topological spaces using homotopy intuition but remarkably admit translation into many other situations. An interesting new preprint [GaHa] even suggests the definition of these classes in appropriate categories of discrete sets, contributing new insights to old Cantorian problems of the scale of infinities.
Closed model categories become in particular a language of preference for many contexts in which objects of study are quotients of “large” objects by “large” equivalence relations, such as homotopy.
It is thus only natural that the most recent Foundation/Superstructure, Vo- evodsky’s Univalent Foundations Project (cf. [Vo] and [Aw]) is based on direct axiomatization of the world of homotopy types.
Drafts, out-of-date:
Exercises de style: A homotopy theory for set theory. Part B. , same in djvu, notes by Misha Gavrilovich on joint with Assaf Hasson, 20 pages, an unfinished write-up briefly sketching the main construction and its set theoretic application. To be updated in a week.
Drafts, earlier versions:
A homotopy approach to set theory, same in djvu, 15 pages, a brief annnouncement of current results, open questions and motivations
A construction of a model category, same in djvu, 42 pages, an unfinished write-up of the proofs, motivations and basic ideas containing full proofs. The style is intentionally unorthodox, and the author would appreciate comments whether readers find the exposition conductive to mathematical reasoning.
Old:
My DPhil thesis Model Theory of the Universal Covering Spaces of Complex Algebraic Varieties. Please note parts of it are superseded by later work of Martin Bays, esp. Categoricity results for exponential maps of 1-dimensional algebraic groups & Schanuel Conjectures for Powers and the CIT. Please note there is an innaccuracy in the definition of the topology in section II.1.2, which is corrected in the preprint Covers of Abelian varieties as analytic Zariski structures, and an error in chapter IV which is corrected in the paper A remark on transitivity of Galois action on the set of uniquely divisible abelian extensions of E(bar Q) by Z2.