David Roberts
fundamental 2-group

Quick and dirty definition

The fundamental 2-group of a pointed space (X,x) is the monoidal groupoid Π 1(Ω xX) with weak inverses given by the ‘reverse path’ map. This description was given in Carrasco-Cegarra-??. There was an equivalent definition given in HDA V: 2-groups, as the automorphism 2-group of the point xX, considered as an object of the fundamental bigroupoid.

Applications

The fundamental 2-group plays a role in the theory of 2-covering spaces analogous to that of that of the fundamental group in the theory of covering spaces, but the theory is not all worked out yet. See chapters 4 and 5 of my thesis.