We introduce analogues of the lattice of non-crossing set partitions for the classical reflection groups of type B and D. The type B analogues (first considered by Montenegro in a different guise) turn out to be as well-behaved as the original non-crossing set partitions, and the type D analogues almost as well-behaved. In both cases, they are EL-labellable ranked lattices with symmetric chain decompositions (self-dual for type B), whose rank-generating functions, zeta polynomials, rank-selected chain numbers have simple closed forms.

We give a definition of weak n-categories based on the theory of operads. We work with operads having an arbitrary set S of types, or ‘S-operads’, and given such an operad O, we denote its set of operations by elt(O). Then for any S-operad O there is an elt(O)-operad O + whose algebras are S-operads over O. Letting I be the initial operad with a one-element set of types, and defining I 0+ = I, I (i+1)+ = (I i+) +, we call the operations of I (n−1)+ the ‘n-dimensional opetopes’. Opetopes form a category, and presheaves on this category are called ‘opetopic sets’. A weak n-category is defined as an opetopic set with certain properties, in a manner reminiscent of Street’s simplicial approach to weak ω-categories. In a similar manner, starting from an arbitrary operad O instead of I, we define ‘n-coherent O-algebras’, which are n times categorified analogs of algebras of O. Examples include ‘monoidal n-categories’, ‘stable n-categories’, ‘virtual n-functors ’ and ‘representable n-prestacks’. We also describe how n-coherent O-algebra objects may be defined in any (n + 1)-coherent O-algebra. 1