A generalization of Quillen's small object argument

Abstract

We generalize the small object argument in order to allow for its application to proper classes of maps (as opposed to sets of maps in Quillen's small object argument). The necessity of such a generalization arose with appearance of several important examples of model categories which were proven to be non-cofibrantly generated. Our current approach allows for construction of functorial factorizations and localizations in the equivariant model structures on diagrams of spaces and diagrams of chain complexes. We also formulate a non-functorial version of the argument, which applies in two different model structures on the category of pro-spaces. The examples above suggest a natural extension of the framework of cofibrantly generated model categories. We introduce the concept of a class-cofibrantly generated model category, which is a model category generated by classes of cofibrations and trivial cofibrations satisfying some reasonable assumptions.