Schreier theory for singular extensions of categorical groups and homotopy classification* *

Abstract

If G is a categorical group, a G-module is defined to be a braided categorical group (A c) together with an action of G on (A,c). In this work we define the notions of singular extension of G by the G-module (A,c) and of 1-cocycle of G with coefficients in (A,c) and we obtain, first, a bijection between the set of equivalence classes of singular extensions of G by (Ac) and the set of equivalence classes of 1-cocycles. Next, we associate to any G-module (Ac) a Kan fibration of simplicial sets ϕ: Ner(GAc)) → Ner(G)and then we show that there is a bijection between the set of equivalence classes of singular extensions of G by (A,c) and Γ[Ner(G,A,c/Ner(G)]the set of fibre homotopy classes of cross-sections of the fibration ϕ.