Higher Homotopies in a Hierarchy of Univalent Universes

For Martin-Lof type theory with a hierarchy U(0): U(1): U(2): ... of univalent universes, we show that U(n) is not an n-type. Our construction also solves the problem of finding a type that strictly has some high truncation level without using higher inductive types. In particular, U(n) is such a type if we restrict it to n-types. We have fully formalized and verified our results within the dependently typed language and proof assistant Agda.Comment: v1: 30 pages, main results and a connectedness construction; v2: 14 pages, only main results, improved presentation, final journal version, ancillary files with electronic appendix; v3: content unchanged, different documentclass reduced the number of pages to 1

Functions out of Higher Truncations

In homotopy type theory, the truncation operator ||-||n (for a number n > -2) is often useful if one does not care about the higher structure of a type and wants to avoid coherence problems. However, its elimination principle only allows to eliminate into n-types, which makes it hard to construct functions ||A||n -> B if B is not an n-type. This makes it desirable to derive more powerful elimination theorems. We show a first general result: If B is an (n+1)-type, then functions ||A||n -> B correspond exactly to functions A -> B which are constant on all (n+1)-st loop spaces. We give one "elementary" proof and one proof that uses a higher inductive type, both of which require some effort. As a sample application of our result, we show that we can construct "set-based" representations of 1-types, as long as they have "braided" loop spaces. The main result with one of its proofs and the application have been formalised in Agda.Comment: 15 pages; to appear at CSL'1

Constructions with non-recursive higher inductive types

Higher inductive types (HITs) in homotopy type theory are a powerful generalization of inductive types. Not only can they have ordinary constructors to define elements, but also higher constructors to define equalities (paths). We say that a HIT H is non-recursive if its constructors do not quantify over elements or paths in H. The advantage of non-recursive HITs is that their elimination principles are easier to apply than those of general HITs. It is an open question which classes of HITs can be encoded as non-recursive HITs. One result of this paper is the construction of the propositional truncation via a sequence of approximations, yielding a representation as a non-recursive HIT. Compared to a related construction by van Doorn, ours has the advantage that the connectedness level increases in each step, yielding simplified elimination principles into n-types. As the elimination principle of our sequence has strictly lower requirements, we can then prove a similar result for van Doorn’s construction. We further derive general elimination principles of higher truncations (say, k-truncations) into n-types, generalizing a previous result by Capriotti et al. which considered the case n=k+1

The General Universal Property of the Propositional Truncation

In a type-theoretic fibration category in the sense of Shulman (representing a dependent type theory with at least 1, Sigma, Pi, and identity types), we define the type of constant functions from A to B. This involves an infinite tower of coherence conditions, and we therefore need the category to have Reedy limits of diagrams over omega. Our main result is that, if the category further has propositional truncations and satisfies function extensionality, the type of constant function is equivalent to the type ||A|| -> B. If B is an n-type for a given finite n, the tower of coherence conditions becomes finite and the requirement of nontrivial Reedy limits vanishes. The whole construction can then be carried out in Homotopy Type Theory and generalises the universal property of the truncation. This provides a way to define functions ||A|| -> B if B is not known to be propositional, and it streamlines the common approach of finding a proposition Q with A -> Q and Q -> B

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 $n$ can be constructed in HoTT for any externally fixed natural number $n$. Such results cannot be expressed in HoTT itself, but they can be formalised and proved in 2LTT, where $n$ 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

Notions of Anonymous Existence in Martin-L\"of Type Theory

As the groupoid model of Hofmann and Streicher proves, identity proofs in intensional Martin-L\"of type theory cannot generally be shown to be unique. Inspired by a theorem by Hedberg, we give some simple characterizations of types that do have unique identity proofs. A key ingredient in these constructions are weakly constant endofunctions on identity types. We study such endofunctions on arbitrary types and show that they always factor through a propositional type, the truncated or squashed domain. Such a factorization is impossible for weakly constant functions in general (a result by Shulman), but we present several non-trivial cases in which it can be done. Based on these results, we define a new notion of anonymous existence in type theory and compare different forms of existence carefully. In addition, we show possibly surprising consequences of the judgmental computation rule of the truncation, in particular in the context of homotopy type theory. All the results have been formalized and verified in the dependently typed programming language Agda.Comment: 36 pages, to appear in the special issue of TLCA'13 (LMCS

From Cubes to Twisted Cubes via Graph Morphisms in Type Theory

Cube categories are used to encode higher-dimensional categorical structures. They have recently gained significant attention in the community of homotopy type theory and univalent foundations, where types carry the structure of higher groupoids. Bezem, Coquand, and Huber [Bezem et al., 2014] have presented a constructive model of univalence using a specific cube category, which we call the BCH cube category. The higher categories encoded with the BCH cube category have the property that all morphisms are invertible, mirroring the fact that equality is symmetric. This might not always be desirable: the field of directed type theory considers a notion of equality that is not necessarily invertible. This motivates us to suggest a category of twisted cubes which avoids built-in invertibility. Our strategy is to first develop several alternative (but equivalent) presentations of the BCH cube category using morphisms between suitably defined graphs. Starting from there, a minor modification allows us to define our category of twisted cubes. We prove several first results about this category, and our work suggests that twisted cubes combine properties of cubes with properties of globes and simplices (tetrahedra)

A rewriting coherence theorem with applications in homotopy type theory

Higher-dimensional rewriting systems are tools to analyse the structure of formally reducing terms to normal forms, as well as comparing the different reduction paths that lead to those normal forms. This higher structure can be captured by finding a homotopy basis for the rewriting system. We show that the basic notions of confluence and wellfoundedness are sufficient to recursively build such a homotopy basis, with a construction reminiscent of an argument by Craig C. Squier. We then go on to translate this construction to the setting of homotopy type theory, where managing equalities between paths is important in order to construct functions which are coherent with respect to higher dimensions. Eventually, we apply the result to approximate a series of open questions in homotopy type theory, such as the characterisation of the homotopy groups of the free group on a set and the pushout of 1-types. This paper expands on our previous conference contribution Coherence via Wellfoundedness by laying out the construction in the language of higher-dimensional rewriting