We give a definition of weak n-categories based on the theory of operads. We work with operads having an arbitrary set S of types, or ‘S-operads’, and given such an operad O, we denote its set of operations by elt(O). Then for any S-operad O there is an elt(O)-operad O + whose algebras are S-operads over O. Letting I be the initial operad with a one-element set of types, and defining I 0+ = I, I (i+1)+ = (I i+) +, we call the operations of I (n−1)+ the ‘n-dimensional opetopes’. Opetopes form a category, and presheaves on this category are called ‘opetopic sets’. A weak n-category is defined as an opetopic set with certain properties, in a manner reminiscent of Street’s simplicial approach to weak ω-categories. In a similar manner, starting from an arbitrary operad O instead of I, we define ‘n-coherent O-algebras’, which are n times categorified analogs of algebras of O. Examples include ‘monoidal n-categories’, ‘stable n-categories’, ‘virtual n-functors ’ and ‘representable n-prestacks’. We also describe how n-coherent O-algebra objects may be defined in any (n + 1)-coherent O-algebra. 1

Given a 2-category K admitting a calculus of bimodules, and a 2-monad T on it compatible with such calculus, we construct a 2-category L with a 2-monad S on it such that: • S has the adjoint-pseudo-algebra property. • The 2-categories of pseudo-algebras of S and T are equivalent. Thus, coherent structures (pseudo-T-algebras) are transformed into universally characterised ones (adjoint-pseudo-S-algebras). The 2-category L consists of lax algebras for the pseudo-monad induced by T on the bicategory of bimodules of K. We give an intrinsic characterisation of pseudo-S-algebras in terms of representability. Two major consequences of the above transformation are the classifications of lax and strong morphisms, with the attendant coherence result for pseudo-algebras. We apply the theory in the context of internal categories and examine monoidal and monoidal globular categories (including their monoid classifiers) as well as pseudo-functors into Cat.

We analyse two complementary methods for obtaining models of typed process calculi, in the form of interaction categories. These methods allow adding new features to previously captured notions of process and of type, respectively. By combining them, all familiar examples of interaction categories, as well as some new ones, can be built starting from some simple familiar categories. Using the presented constructions, interaction categories can be analysed without fixing a set of axioms, merely in terms of the way in which they are specified --- just like algebras are analysed in terms of equations and relations, independently on abstract characterisations of their varieties.

Parallel transport of a connection in a smooth fibre bundle yields a functor from the path groupoid of the base manifold into a category that describes the fibres of the bundle. We characterize functors obtained like this by two notions we introduce: local trivializations and smooth descent data. This provides a way to substitute categories of functors for categories of smooth fibre bundles with connection. We indicate that this concept can be generalized to connections in categorified bundles, and how this generalization improves the understanding of higher dimensional parallel transport. Table of Contents

I categorify the definition of fibre bundle, replacing smooth manifolds with differentiable categories, Lie groups with coherent Lie 2-groups, and bundles with a suitable notion of 2-bundle. To link this with previous work, I show that certain 2-categories of principal 2-bundles are equivalent to certain 2-categories of (nonabelian) gerbes. This relationship can be (and has been) extended to connections on 2-bundles and gerbes. The main theorem, from a perspective internal to this paper, is that the 2-category of 2-bundles over a given 2-space under a given 2-group is (up to equivalence) independent of the fibre and can be expressed in terms of cohomological data (called 2-transitions). From the perspective of linking to previous work on gerbes, the main theorem is that when the 2-space is the 2-space corresponding to a given space and the 2-group is the automorphism 2-group of a given group, then this 2-category is equivalent to the 2-category of gerbes over that space under that group (being described by the same cohomological data).

We present a definition of homotopy algebra for an operad, and explore its consequences. The paper should be accessible to topologists, category theorists, and anyone acquainted with operads. After a review of operads and monoidal categories, the definition of homotopy algebra is given. Specifically, suppose that M is a monoidal category in which it makes sense to talk about algebras for some operad P. Then our definition says what a homotopy P-algebra in M is, provided only that some of the morphisms in M have been marked out as ‘homotopy equivalences’. The bulk of the paper consists of examples of homotopy algebras. We show that any loop space is a homotopy monoid, and, in fact, that any n-fold loop space is an n-fold homotopy monoid in an appropriate sense. We try to compare weakened algebraic structures such as A∞-spaces, A∞-algebras and non-strict monoidal categories to our homotopy algebras, with varying degrees of success. We also prove results on ‘change of base’, e.g. that the classifying space of a homotopy monoidal category is a homotopy topological monoid. Finally, we

Abstract. We show how to formulate the notion of locally cartesian closed category without chosen pullbacks, by the use of Makkai’s theory of anafunctors. 1.

We introduce nonabelian differential cohomology classifying ∞-bundles with smooth connection and their higher gerbes of sections, generalizing [138]. We construct classes of examples of these from lifts, twisted lifts and obstructions to lifts through shifted central extensions of groups by the shifted abelian n-group B n−1 U(1). Notable examples are String 2-bundles [9] and Fivebrane 6-bundles [133]. The obstructions to lifting ordinary principal bundles to these, hence in particular the obstructions to lifting Spin-structures to String-structures [13] and further to Fivebrane-structures [133, 52], are abelian Chern-Simons 3- and 7-bundles with characteristic class the first and second fractional Pontryagin class, whose abelian cocycles have been constructed explicitly by Brylinski and McLaughlin [35, 36]. We realize their construction as an abelian component of obstruction theory in nonabelian cohomology by ∞-Lieintegrating the L∞-algebraic data in [132]. As a result, even if the lift fails, we obtain twisted String 2- and twisted Fivebrane 6-bundles classified in twisted nonabelian (differential) cohomology and generalizing the twisted bundles appearing in twisted K-theory. We explain the Green-Schwarz mechanism in heterotic string theory in terms of twisted String 2-bundles and its magnetic dual version – according to [133] – in terms of twisted Fivebrane 6-bundles. We close by transgressing differential cocycles to mapping

Bishop’s informal set theory is briefly discussed and compared to Lawvere’s Elementary Theory of the Category of Sets (ETCS). We then present a constructive and predicative version of ETCS, whose standard model is based on the constructive type theory of Martin-Löf. The theory, CETCS, provides a structuralist foundation for constructive mathematics in the style of Bishop.

We give a new combinatorial definition of a sort of weak !- category originally devised by J. Baez and J. Dolan in finite dimensional cases. Our definition is a mixture of both inductive and coinductive definitions, and suitable for `computational category theory.' Keyword: weak n-category, bicategory, tricategory, formalized mathematics 1