Segal spaces, spans, and semicategories

Abstract

We show that Segal spaces, and more generally category objects in an $\infty$-category $\mathcal{C}$, can be identified with associative algebras in the double $\infty$-category of spans in $\mathcal{C}$. We use this observation to prove that "having identities" is a property of a non-unital $(\infty ,n)$-category.

Accepted version, 14 pages