Weak Higher Categories
In weak n-categories, the associativity and identity conditions are no longer strict (that is, they are not given by equalities), but rather are satisfied up to an isomorphism of the next level. An example in topology is the composition of paths, which is associative only up to homotopy. These isomorphisms must well behave between hom-sets and expressing this is the difficulty in the definition of weak n-categories. Weak 2-categories, also called bicategories, were the first to be defined explicitly. A particularity of these is that a bicategory with one object is exactly a monoidal category, so that bicategories can be said to be "monoidal categories with many objects." Weak 3-categories, also called tricategories, and higher-level generalizations are increasingly harder to define explicitly. Several definitions have been given, and telling when they are equivalent, and in what sense, has become a new object of study in category theory.
Read more about this topic: Higher Category Theory
Famous quotes containing the words weak, higher and/or categories:
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—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
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