From Categories to Homotopy Theory

Birgit Richter is Professor of Mathematics at Universität Hamburg. She is the co-editor of Structured Ring Spectra (2004) and New Topological Contexts for Galois Theory and Algebraic Geometry (2009).

'It would be an excellent text for a graduate student just finishing introductory coursework and wanting to know about techniques in modern homotopy theory.' Julie Bergner

• Introduction; Part I. Category Theory: 1. Basic notions in category theory; 2. Natural transformations and the Yoneda lemma; 3. Colimits and limits; 4. Kan extensions; 5. Comma categories and the Grothendieck construction; 6. Monads and comonads; 7. Abelian categories; 8. Symmetric monoidal categories; 9. Enriched categories; Part II. From Categories to Homotopy Theory: 10. Simplicial objects; 11. The nerve and the classifying space of a small category; 12. A brief introduction to operads; 13. Classifying spaces of symmetric monoidal categories; 14. Approaches to iterated loop spaces via diagram categories; 15. Functor homology; 16. Homology and cohomology of small categories; References; Index.