  Our aim is to compare three nerve functors for strict $n$-categories: the
Street nerve, the cellular nerve and the multi-simplicial nerve. We show that
these three functors are equivalent in some appropriate sense. In particular,
the classes of $n$-categorical weak equivalences that they define coincide:
they are the Thomason equivalences. We give two applications of this result:
the first one states that a Dyer-Kan-type equivalence for Thomason equivalences
is a Thomason equivalence; the second one, fundamental, is the stability of the
class of Thomason equivalences under the dualities of the category of strict
$n$-categories.
