Topological Ideas in Inverse Semigroup Theory

Abstract

We introduce notions of homotopy and cohomology for ordered groupoids. We show that abstract homotopy theory can be used to define a suitable notion of homotopy equivalence for ordered groupoids (and hence inverse semigroups). As an application of our theory we prove a theorem which is the exact counterpart of the well-known result in topology which states that every continuous function can be factorised into a homotopy equivalence followed by a fibration. We show that this factorisation is isomorphic to the one constructed by Steinberg in his 'Fibration Theorem', originally proved using a generalisation of Tilson's derived category. We show that the cohomology of an ordered groupoid can be defined as the cohomology of a suitable small category, in doing so we
generalise the cohomology of inverse semigroups due to Lausch. We define extensions of ordered groupoids and show that these provide an interpretation of low-dimensional cohomology groups.

Date of Award	14 Apr 2004
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Wales, Bangor
Sponsors	EPSRC
Supervisor	Mark Lawson (Supervisor)