Antonio R. Garzón

Any pointed CW‐complex X has associated a categorical crossed module WX whose homotopy groups coincide with those of the space up to dimension 3. Here we associate WX more closely with the homotopy 3‐type of X. We introduce the nerve of a categorical crossed module L and define its classifying space BL as the geometrical realization of the nerve. Then we prove that there is a map X → BWX inducing isomorphism of the homotopy groups π_i for i ≤ 3. Finally, comparison with other algebraic models of 3‐types is achieved

This paper explores the relationship amongst the various simplicial and pseudo-simplicial objects characteristically associated to any bicategory C. It proves the fact that the geometric realizations of all of these possible candidate `nerves of C' are homotopy equivalent. Any one of these realizations could therefore be taken as the classifying space BC of the bicategory. Its other major result proves a direct extension of Thomason's `Homotopy Colimit Theorem' to bicategories: When the homotopy colimit construction is carried out on a diagram of spaces obtained by applying the classifying space functor to a diagram of bicategories, the resulting space has the homotopy type of a certain bicategory, called the `Grothendieck construction on the diagram'. Our results provide coherence for all reasonable extensions to bicategories of Quillen's definition of the `classifying space' of a category as the geometric realization of the category's Grothendieck nerve, and they are applied to monoidal (tensor) categories through the elemental `delooping' construction.

In this article we introduce and study the first cohomology categorical group ℋ¹(𝔾,𝔸) of a categorical group 𝔾 with coefficients in a braided categorical group 𝔸 provided of a coherent 𝔾-action. The fundamental exact sequence connecting ℋ⁰ and ℋ¹ in this context is then established.