Factorization homology I: higher categories

Abstract

We construct a pairing, which we call factorization homology, between framed manifolds and higher categories. The essential geometric notion is that of a vari-framing of a stratified manifold, which is a framing on each stratum together with a coherent system of compatibilities of framings along links between strata. Our main result constructs labeling systems on disk-stratified vari-framed $n$-manifolds from $(\infty ,n)$-categories. These $(\infty ,n)$-categories, in contrast with the literature to date, are not required to have adjoints. This allows the following conceptual definition: the factorization homology \[ \int_M\mathcal{C} \] of a framed $n$-manifold $M$ with coefficients in an $(\infty ,n)$-category $\mathcal{C}$ is the classifying space of $\cC$-labeled disk-stratifications over $M$.

94 pages, 14 figures; contains an erratum which corrects the statement of the main theorem, based on the non-contractibility of vari-framed automorphisms of the hemispherical disk in higher-dimensions; differs from the published version