The Galois group of a stable homotopy theory

To a "stable homotopy theory" (a presentable, symmetric monoidal stable $\infty$-category), we naturally associate a category of finite \'etale algebra objects and, using Grothendieck's categorical machine, a profinite group that we call the Galois group. We then calculate the Galois groups in several examples. For instance, we show that the Galois group of the periodic $\mathbf{E}_\infty$-algebra of topological modular forms is trivial and that the Galois group of $K(n)$-local stable homotopy theory is an extended version of the Morava stabilizer group. We also describe the Galois group of the stable module category of a finite group. A fundamental idea throughout is the purely categorical notion of a "descendable" algebra object and an associated analog of faithfully flat descent in this context.Comment: 93 pages. To appear in Advances in Mathematic

Anti-Foundational Categorical Structuralism

The aim of this dissertation is to outline and defend the view here dubbed “anti-foundational categorical structuralism” (henceforth AFCS). The program put forth is intended to provide an answer the question “what is mathematics?”. The answer here on offer adopts the structuralist view of mathematics, in that mathematics is taken to be “the science of structure” expressed in the language of category theory, which is argued to accurately capture the notion of a “structural property”. In characterizing mathematical theorems as both conditional and schematic in form, the program is forced to give up claims to securing the truth of its theorems, as well as give up a semantics which involves reference to special, distinguished “mathematical objects”, or which involves quantification over a fixed domain of such objects. One who wishes—contrary to the AFCS view—to inject mathematics with a “standard” semantics, and to provide a secure epistemic foundation for the theorems of mathematics, in short, one who wishes for a foundation for mathematics, will surely find this view lacking. However, I argue that a satisfactory development of the structuralist view, couched in the language of category theory, accurately represents our best understanding of the content of mathematical theorems and thereby obviates the need for any foundational program

Noncommutative Geometry in the Framework of Differential Graded Categories

In this survey article we discuss a framework of noncommutative geometry with differential graded categories as models for spaces. We outline a construction of the category of noncommutative spaces and also include a discussion on noncommutative motives. We propose a motivic measure with values in a motivic ring. This enables us to introduce certain zeta functions of noncommutative spaces.Comment: 19 pages. Minor corrections and one reference added; to appear in the proceedings volume of AGAQ Istanbul, 200

A brief review of abelian categorifications

This article contains a review of categorifications of semisimple representations of various rings via abelian categories and exact endofunctors on them. A simple definition of an abelian categorification is presented and illustrated with several examples, including categorifications of various representations of the symmetric group and its Hecke algebra via highest weight categories of modules over the Lie algebra sl(n). The review is intended to give non-experts in representation theory who are familiar with the topological aspects of categorification (lifting quantum link invariants to homology theories) an idea for the sort of categories that appear when link homology is extended to tangles.Comment: latex, 35 pages, 4 eps figure

An Abstract Approach to Consequence Relations

We generalise the Blok-J\'onsson account of structural consequence relations, later developed by Galatos, Tsinakis and other authors, in such a way as to naturally accommodate multiset consequence. While Blok and J\'onsson admit, in place of sheer formulas, a wider range of syntactic units to be manipulated in deductions (including sequents or equations), these objects are invariably aggregated via set-theoretical union. Our approach is more general in that non-idempotent forms of premiss and conclusion aggregation, including multiset sum and fuzzy set union, are considered. In their abstract form, thus, deductive relations are defined as additional compatible preorderings over certain partially ordered monoids. We investigate these relations using categorical methods, and provide analogues of the main results obtained in the general theory of consequence relations. Then we focus on the driving example of multiset deductive relations, providing variations of the methods of matrix semantics and Hilbert systems in Abstract Algebraic Logic