Acyclic models

Abstract

Acyclic models is a powerful technique in algebraic topology and homological algebra in which facts about homology theories are verified by first verifying them on "models" (on which the homology theory is trivial) and then showing that there are enough models to present arbitrary objects. One version of the theorem allows one to conclude that two chain complex functors are naturally homotopic and another that two such functors are object-wise homologous. Neither is entirely satisfactory. The purpose of this paper is to provide a uniform account of these two, fixing what is unsatisfactory and also finding intermediate forms of the theorem.