Cellular coalgebras over the Barratt-Eccles operad I

Abstract

This paper considers a class of coalgebras over the Barratt-Eccles operad and shows that they classify Z-completions of pointed, reduced simplicial sets. As a consequence, they encapsulate the homotopy types of nilpotent simplicial sets. This result is a direct generalization of Quillen's result characterizing rational homotopy types via cocommutative coalgebras.