Decomposition spaces and restriction species

Abstract: We show that Schmitt's restriction species (such as graphs, matroids, posets, etc.) naturally induce decomposition spaces (a.k.a. unital 2-Segal spaces), and that their associated coalgebras are an instance of the general construction of incidence coalgebras of decomposition spaces. We introduce the notion of directed restriction species that subsume Schmitt's restriction species and also induce decomposition spaces. Whereas ordinary restriction species are presheaves on the category of finite sets and injections, directed restriction species are presheaves on the category of finite posets and convex maps. We also introduce the notion of monoidal (directed) restriction species, which induce monoidal decomposition spaces and hence bialgebras, most often Hopf algebras. Examples of this notion include rooted forests, directed graphs, posets, double posets, and many related structures. A prominent instance of a resulting incidence bialgebra is the Butcher-Connes-Kreimer Hopf algebra of rooted trees. Both ordinary and directed restriction species are shown to be examples of a construction of decomposition spaces from certain cocartesian fibrations over the category of finite ordinals that are also cartesian over convex maps. The proofs rely on some beautiful simplicial combinatorics, where the notion of convexity plays a key role. The methods developed are of independent interest as techniques for constructing decomposition spaces.