Monoidal model categories

Abstract

A monoidal model category is a model category with a compatible closed monoidal structure. Such things abound in nature; simplicial sets and chain complexes of abelian groups are examples. Given a monoidal model category, one can consider monoids and modules over a given monoid. We would like to be able to study the homotopy theory of these monoids and modules. This question was first addressed by Stefan Schwede and Brooke Shipley in "Algebras and modules in monoidal model categories", who showed that under certain conditions, there are model categories of monoids and of modules over a given monoid. This paper is a follow-up to that one. We study what happens when the conditions of Schwede-Shipley do not hold. This will happen in any topological situation, and in particular, in topological symmetric spectra. We find that, with no conditions on our monoidal model category except that it be cofibrantly generated and that the unit be cofibrant, we still obtain a homotopy category of monoids, and that this homotopy category is homotopy invariant in an appropriate sense.