Model categories

In mathematics, particularly in homotopy theory, a model category is a category with distinguished classes of morphisms ('arrows') called 'weak equivalences', 'fibrations' and 'cofibrations'. These abstract from a conventional homotopy category of topological spaces or of chain complexes (derived category theory), via the acyclic model theorem. The concept was introduced by Daniel G. Quillen (1967).

In recent decades, the language of model categories has been used in some parts of algebraic K-theory and algebraic geometry, where homotopy-theoretic approaches led to deep results.

Model categories can provide a natural setting for homotopy theory: the category of topological spaces is a model category, with the homotopy corresponding to the usual theory. Similarly, objects that are thought of as spaces often admit a model category structure, such as the category of simplicial sets.

Another model category is the category of chain complexes of R-modules for a commutative ring R. Homotopy theory in this context is homological algebra. Homology can then be viewed as a type of homotopy, allowing generalizations of homology to other objects, such as groups and R-algebras, one of the first major applications of the theory. Because of the above example regarding homology, the study of closed model categories is sometimes thought of as homotopical algebra.

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