Decomposition spaces, incidence algebras and Möbius inversion III: the decomposition space of Möbius intervals

Abstract

Decomposition spaces are simplicial 8-groupoids subject to a certain exactness condition, needed to induce a coalgebra structure on the space of arrows. Conservative ULF functors between decomposition spaces induce coalgebra homomorphisms. Suitable added finiteness conditions define the notion of Möbius decomposition space, a far-reaching generalisation of the notion of Möbius category of Leroux. In this paper, we show that the Lawvere-Menni Hopf algebra of Möbius intervals, which contains the universal Möbius function (but is not induced by a Möbius category), can be realised as the homotopy cardinality of a Möbius decomposition space U of all Möbius intervals, and that in a certain sense U is universal