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Quillen's theorems A and B

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Two theorems needed for Quillen's Q-construction in algebraic K-theory

In topology, a branch of mathematics, Quillen's Theorem A gives a sufficient condition for the classifying spaces of two categories to be homotopy equivalent. Quillen's Theorem B gives a sufficient condition for a square consisting of classifying spaces of categories to be homotopy Cartesian. The two theorems play central roles in Quillen's Q-construction in algebraic K-theory and are named after Daniel Quillen.

The precise statements of the theorems are as follows.

Quillen's Theorem A — If f : C D {\displaystyle f:C\to D} is a functor such that the classifying space B ( d f ) {\displaystyle B(d\downarrow f)} of the comma category d f {\displaystyle d\downarrow f} is contractible for any object d in D, then f induces a homotopy equivalence B C B D {\displaystyle BC\to BD} .

Quillen's Theorem B — If f : C D {\displaystyle f:C\to D} is a functor that induces a homotopy equivalence B ( d f ) B ( d f ) {\displaystyle B(d'\downarrow f)\to B(d\downarrow f)} for any morphism d d {\displaystyle d\to d'} in D, then there is an induced long exact sequence:

π i + 1 B D π i B ( d f ) π i B C π i B D . {\displaystyle \cdots \to \pi _{i+1}BD\to \pi _{i}B(d\downarrow f)\to \pi _{i}BC\to \pi _{i}BD\to \cdots .}

In general, the homotopy fiber of B f : B C B D {\displaystyle Bf:BC\to BD} is not naturally the classifying space of a category: there is no natural category F f {\displaystyle Ff} such that F B f = B F f {\displaystyle FBf=BFf} . Theorem B constructs F f {\displaystyle Ff} in a case when f {\displaystyle f} is especially nice.

References

  1. Weibel 2013, Ch. IV. Theorem 3.7 and Theorem 3.8


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