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Concept
Simplicial set
Summary
In mathematics, a simplicial set is an object composed of simplices in a specific way. Simplicial sets are higher-dimensional generalizations of directed graphs, partially ordered sets and . Formally, a simplicial set may be defined as a contravariant functor from the to the . Simplicial sets were introduced in 1950 by Samuel Eilenberg and Joseph A. Zilber.
Every simplicial set gives rise to a "nice" topological space, known as its geometric realization. This realization consists of geometric simplices, glued together according to the rules of the simplicial set. Indeed, one may view a simplicial set as a purely combinatorial construction designed to capture the essence of a "well-behaved" topological space for the purposes of homotopy theory. Specifically, the category of simplicial sets carries a natural , and the corresponding is equivalent to the familiar homotopy category of topological spaces.
Simplicial sets are used to define , a basic notion of . A construction analogous to that of simplicial sets can be carried out in any category, not just in the category of sets, yielding the notion of simplicial objects.
A simplicial set is a categorical (that is, purely algebraic) model capturing those topological spaces that can be built up (or faithfully represented up to homotopy) from simplices and their incidence relations. This is similar to the approach of CW complexes to modeling topological spaces, with the crucial difference that simplicial sets are purely algebraic and do not carry any actual topology.
To get back to actual topological spaces, there is a geometric realization functor which turns simplicial sets into compactly generated Hausdorff spaces. Most classical results on CW complexes in homotopy theory are generalized by analogous results for simplicial sets. While algebraic topologists largely continue to prefer CW complexes, there is a growing contingent of researchers interested in using simplicial sets for applications in algebraic geometry where CW complexes do not naturally exist.
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Ontological neighbourhood
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Related concepts (21)
Model category
In mathematics, particularly in homotopy theory, a model category is a with distinguished classes of morphisms ('arrows') called 'weak equivalences', 'fibrations' and 'cofibrations' satisfying certain axioms relating them. These abstract from the category of topological spaces or of chain complexes ( theory). The concept was introduced by . In recent decades, the language of model categories has been used in some parts of algebraic K-theory and algebraic geometry, where homotopy-theoretic approaches led to deep results.
Abstract simplicial complex
In combinatorics, an abstract simplicial complex (ASC), often called an abstract complex or just a complex, is a family of sets that is closed under taking subsets, i.e., every subset of a set in the family is also in the family. It is a purely combinatorial description of the geometric notion of a simplicial complex. For example, in a 2-dimensional simplicial complex, the sets in the family are the triangles (sets of size 3), their edges (sets of size 2), and their vertices (sets of size 1).
Classifying space
In mathematics, specifically in homotopy theory, a classifying space BG of a topological group G is the quotient of a weakly contractible space EG (i.e., a topological space all of whose homotopy groups are trivial) by a proper free action of G. It has the property that any G principal bundle over a paracompact manifold is isomorphic to a pullback of the principal bundle EG → BG. As explained later, this means that classifying spaces represent a set-valued functor on the of topological spaces.