338 research outputs found
What is a Higher Level Set?
Structuralist foundations of mathematics aim for an “invariant” conception of mathematics. But what should be their basic objects? Two leading answers emerge: higher groupoids or higher categories. In this paper I argue in favor of the former over the latter. First, I explain why to pick between them we need to ask the question of what is the correct “categorified” version of a set. Second, I argue in favor of groupoids over categories as “categorified” sets by introducing a pre-formal understanding of groupoids as abstract shapes. This conclusion lends further support to the perspective taken by the Univalent Foundations of mathematics
Two-Level Type Theory and Applications
We define and develop two-level type theory (2LTT), a version of Martin-L\"of
type theory which combines two different type theories. We refer to them as the
inner and the outer type theory. In our case of interest, the inner theory is
homotopy type theory (HoTT) which may include univalent universes and higher
inductive types. The outer theory is a traditional form of type theory
validating uniqueness of identity proofs (UIP). One point of view on it is as
internalised meta-theory of the inner type theory.
There are two motivations for 2LTT. Firstly, there are certain results about
HoTT which are of meta-theoretic nature, such as the statement that
semisimplicial types up to level can be constructed in HoTT for any
externally fixed natural number . Such results cannot be expressed in HoTT
itself, but they can be formalised and proved in 2LTT, where will be a
variable in the outer theory. This point of view is inspired by observations
about conservativity of presheaf models.
Secondly, 2LTT is a framework which is suitable for formulating additional
axioms that one might want to add to HoTT. This idea is heavily inspired by
Voevodsky's Homotopy Type System (HTS), which constitutes one specific instance
of a 2LTT. HTS has an axiom ensuring that the type of natural numbers behaves
like the external natural numbers, which allows the construction of a universe
of semisimplicial types. In 2LTT, this axiom can be stated simply be asking the
inner and outer natural numbers to be isomorphic.
After defining 2LTT, we set up a collection of tools with the goal of making
2LTT a convenient language for future developments. As a first such
application, we develop the theory of Reedy fibrant diagrams in the style of
Shulman. Continuing this line of thought, we suggest a definition of
(infinity,1)-category and give some examples.Comment: 53 page
Constructing Infinitary Quotient-Inductive Types
This paper introduces an expressive class of quotient-inductive types, called
QW-types. We show that in dependent type theory with uniqueness of identity
proofs, even the infinitary case of QW-types can be encoded using the
combination of inductive-inductive definitions involving strictly positive
occurrences of Hofmann-style quotient types, and Abel's size types. The latter,
which provide a convenient constructive abstraction of what classically would
be accomplished with transfinite ordinals, are used to prove termination of the
recursive definitions of the elimination and computation properties of our
encoding of QW-types. The development is formalized using the Agda theorem
prover
Constructing Infinitary Quotient-Inductive Types
This paper introduces an expressive class of quotient-inductive types, called
QW-types. We show that in dependent type theory with uniqueness of identity
proofs, even the infinitary case of QW-types can be encoded using the
combination of inductive-inductive definitions involving strictly positive
occurrences of Hofmann-style quotient types, and Abel's size types. The latter,
which provide a convenient constructive abstraction of what classically would
be accomplished with transfinite ordinals, are used to prove termination of the
recursive definitions of the elimination and computation properties of our
encoding of QW-types. The development is formalized using the Agda theorem
prover.Comment: The accompanying Agda code can be found at
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.4818
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