[Math] What does it mean to speak of a homotopy fibration sequence

at.algebraic-topologyfibration

I'm reading a paper in which the following is done. We have a certain particular map of spaces $f:X\to Y$ and then it is said something along the lines of "let $Z_f$ denote the space whose defining attribute is that it is the space that fits into the following fibration sequence up to homotopy":

Then it is said "To speak of the sequence above as a homotopy (co)fibration sequence, one needs to specify a preferred null-homotopy for the composite map".

(the (co) is mine, since in fact the writer is working with spectra, and in my interpretation they are being replaced by spaces, where no longer cofibration=fibration)

I don't really understand what's going on. I'm aware of the general fact that the nullhomotopies of $gf$ in the following diagram are in one to one correspondence with the extensions $G$ of $g$ to the homotopy cofiber:

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Returning to the case above, why is it needed to specify a preferred null-homotopy for the composite map? Can't we just specify a map $Y\to Z_f$ and prove that the composition is nullhomotopic?

Best Answer

Good definition: $X\to Y\to Z$ is a homotopy fibration sequence if the composed map is a constant $z$ and the resulting map from $X$ to the homotopy fiber of $Y\to Z$ is a weak homotopy equivalence.

More general good definition: $X\to Y\to Z$ is a homotopy fibration sequence if a homotopy is given from the composed map to a constant $z$ and the resulting map from $X$ to the homotopy fiber of $Y\to Z$ over $z$ is a weak homotopy equivalence.

Bad definition: $X\to Y\to Z$ is a homotopy fibration sequence if there is a homotopy from the composed map to a constant $z$ such that the resulting map from $X$ to the homotopy fiber of $Y\to Z$ over $z$ is a weak homotopy equivalence.

What's bad, or at least potentially confusing, about this is that you can have two different homotopies from the composed map to a constant such that one does the job and the other does not.

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