Expand description
The general Eilenberg–MacLane construction K(A, n) — one engine, every rung of the tower.
two_type built K(A, 2) by hand. Every space in the Postnikov tower is glued from K(πₙ, n)’s, so
the honest way to “keep climbing” is to build the general K(A, n) for any n, not a fresh module
per dimension. This is the Dold–Kan model Γ(A[n]): an m-simplex is an A-labeling of the
order-preserving surjections [m] ↠ [n] (the chain complex is concentrated in degree n, so a
face that fails to stay surjective dies — C_{n−1} = C_{n+1} = 0). It is a simplicial abelian group,
hence a Kan complex, and we verify by enumeration, for n = 2, 3:
πₙ = A: the inner horn at degreenhas|A|fillers — then-cells.- Kan: every horn fills (the face-tuple map is onto the compatible horns).
- exactly
n-truncated: inner horns at degreen + 2fill uniquely — noπ_{n+1}.
n = 3 is the first genuine 3-type object the framework possesses (K(A, 2) was the first 2-type).
Functions§
- homology_
size - The
k-th homology|H_k(K(A,n))|via the normalized (Moore) chain complex:N_k = ⋂_{i≥1} ker dᵢwith differentiald_0. Computed independently of the horn-filling homotopy extractor, so that their agreement is the genuine Hurewicz statement, not a tautology. - homotopy_
group_ size - Extract the homotopy group
π_kofK(A, n)directly from the Kan complex, by horn-filling. This is the homotopy hypothesis realized computationally — given the ∞-groupoid object, read its homotopy back out. Returns|π_k|:|A|atk = n, trivial (1) everywhere else. (K(A, n≥2)is 1-connected, soπ_0 = π_1 = 1by construction.) - is_
omega_ spectrum - Whether the Eilenberg–MacLane spaces
{K(A, n)}form an Ω-spectrum: each is the loop space of the next, so the homotopy is invariant under the simultaneous shiftn ↦ n+1,k ↦ k+1(π_k(K(A,n)) = π_{k+1}(K(A,n+1))). That deloopability is what makes the sequence a spectrum. - stable_
homotopy - The stable homotopy of the Eilenberg–MacLane spectrum
HA:π_k(HA) = colim_n π_{n+k}(K(A,n)). ForHAit is concentrated in degree0(|A|atk = 0, trivial elsewhere) — exactly what makesHArepresent ordinary cohomologyHⁿ(−; A). Read off the stable range (N = 4).