A higher limit approach to homology theories

Abstract: A lot of well-known functors such as group homology, cyclic homology of algebras can be described as limits of certain simply defined functors over categories of presentations. In this paper, we develop technique for the description of the higher limits over categories of presentations and show that certain homological functors can be described in this way. In particular, we give a description of Hochschild homology and the derived functors of tensor, symmetric and exterior powers in the sense of Dold and Puppe as higher limits.