On the homotopy theory of enriched categories

Abstract

We give sufficient conditions for the existence of a Quillen model structure on small categories enriched in a given monoidal model category. This yields a unified treatment for the known model structures on simplicial, topological, dg- and spectral categories. Our proof is mainly based on a fundamental property of cofibrant enriched categories on two objects, stated below as the Interval Cofibrancy Theorem.