Homotopy Type Theory
H-space

Idea

Sometimes we can equip a type with a certain structure, called a H-space, allowing us to derive some nice properties about the type or even construct fibrations

Definition

A H-Space consists of

• A type $A$,
• A basepoint $e:A$
• A binary operation $\mu : A \to A \to A$
• for every $a:A$, equalities $\mu(e,a)=a$ and $\mu(a,e)=a$

Properties

Let $A$ be a connected? H-space. Then for every $a:A$, the maps? $\mu(a,-),\mu(-,a):A \to A$ are equivalences?.

Examples

• There is a H-space structure on the circle. See Lemma 8.5.8 of the HoTT book.

Proof. We define $\mu : S^1 \to S^1 \to S^1$ by circle induction:

$$\mu(base)\equiv id_{S^1}\qquad ap_{\mu}\equiv funext(h)$$

where $h : \prod_{x : S^1} x = x$ is defined in Lemma 6.4.2 of the HoTT book. We now need to show that $\mu(x,e)=mu(e,x)=x$ for every $x : S^1$. Showing $\mu(e,x)=x$ is quite simple, the other way requires some more manipulation. Both of which are done in the book.

• Every loop space is naturally a H-space with path concatenation as the operation. In fact every loop space is a group?.

• The type of maps? $A \to A$ has the structure of a H-space, with basepoint $id_A$, operation function composition.

See also

Synthetic homotopy theory

hopf fibration

On the nlab

Classically, an H-space is a homotopy type equipped with the structure of a unital magma in the homotopy category (only).

References

HoTT book

category: homotopy theory