The universal property of derived geometry

Abstract

Derived geometry can be defined as the universal way to adjoin finite homotopical limits to a given category of manifolds compatibly with products and glueing. The point of this paper is to show that a construction closely resembling existing approaches to derived geometry in fact produces a geometry with this universal property. I also investigate consequences of this definition in particular in the differentiable setting, and compare the theory so obtained to D. Spivak's axioms for derived C-infinity geometry.