24 pages; v2: minor typos corrected. To appear in the proceedings of the conference "Algebras, Representations and Applications" (Lie and Jordan Algebras, their Representations and Applications - III) in Honour of Prof. Ivan Shestakov's 60th Birthday
In this expository paper, we discuss and compare the notions of braided and coboundary monoidal categories. Coboundary monoidal categories are analogues of braided monoidal categories in which the role of the braid group is replaced by the cactus group. We focus on the categories of representations of quantum groups and crystals and explain how while the former is a braided monoidal category, this structure does not pass to the crystal limit. However, the categories of representations of quantum groups of finite type also possess the structure of a coboundary category which does behave well in the crystal limit. We explain this construction and also a recent interpretation of the coboundary structure using quiver varieties. This geometric viewpoint allows one to show that the category of crystals is in fact a coboundary monoidal category for arbitrary symmetrizable Kac-Moody type.
We prove a coherence theorem for actions of groups on monoidal categories. As an application we prove coherence for arbitrary braided $G$-crossed categories.
We introduce the notions of a half-balanced braided monoidal category and of its contraction. These notions give rise to an explicit description of the action of the Galois group of QQ on Teichmueller groupoids in genus 0, equivalent to that of L. Schneps. We also show that a prounipotent version of this action is equivalent to a graded action.
We begin with a brief sketch of what is known and conjectured concerning braided monoidal 2-categories and their applications to 4d topological quantum field theories and 2-tangles (surfaces embedded in 4-dimensional space). Then we give concise definitions of semistrict monoidal 2-categories and braided monoidal 2-categories, and show how these may be unpacked to give long explicit definitions similar to, but not quite the same as, those given by Kapranov and Voevodsky. Finally, we describe how to construct a semistrict braided monoidal 2-category Z(C) as the `center' of a semistrict monoidal…
Multiplier bimonoids (or bialgebras) in arbitrary braided monoidal categories are defined. They are shown to possess monoidal categories of comodules and modules. These facts are explained by the structures carried by their induced functors.
A linear Gr-category is a category of finite-dimensional vector spaces graded by a finite group together with natural tensor product. We classify the braided monoidal structures of a class of linear Gr-categories via explicit computations of the 3-cocycles and quasi-bicharacters of finite abelian groups which are direct product of two cyclic groups.
We introduce the notion of a monoidal category enriched in a braided monoidal category $\mathcal V$. We set up the basic theory, and prove a classification result in terms of braided oplax monoidal functors to the Drinfeld center of some monoidal category $\mathcal T$. Even the basic theory is interesting; it shares many characteristics with the theory of monoidal categories enriched in a symmetric monoidal category, but lacks some features. Of particular note, there is no cartesian product of braided-enriched categories, and the natural transformations do not form a 2-category, but rather sat…
In this paper, we define and study weak monoidal Hom-Hopf algebras, which generalize both weak Hopf algebras and monoidal Hom-Hopf algebras. If $H$ is a weak monoidal Hom-Hopf algebra with bijective antipode and let $Aut_{wmHH}(H)$ be the set of all automorphisms of $H$. Then we introduce a category ${_{H}\mathcal{WMHYD}^{H}}(α,β)$ with $α,β\in Aut_{wmHH}(H)$ and construct a braided $T$-category $\mathcal{WMHYD}(H)$ that having all the categories ${_{H}\mathcal{WMHYD}^{H}}(α,β)$ as components.
We construct an equivalence between the 2-categories VMonCat of rigid V-monoidal categories for a braided monoidal category V and VModTens of oplax braided functors from V into the Drinfeld centers of ordinary rigid monoidal categories. The 1-cells in each are the respective lax monoidal functors, and the 2-cells are the respective monoidal natural transformations. Our proof also gives an equivalence in the case that we consider only strong monoidal 1-cells on both sides. The 2-categories VMonCat and VModTens have G-graded analogues. We also get an equivalence of 2-categories between G-extensi…
Hopf (bi-)modules and crossed modules over a bialgebra B in a braided monoidal category C are considered. The (braided) monoidal equivalence of both categories is proved provided B is a Hopf algebra (with invertible antipode). Bialgebra projections and Hopf bimodule bialgebras over a Hopf algebra in C are found to be isomorphic categories. As a consequence a generalization of the Radford-Majid criterion for a braided Hopf algebra to be a cross product is obtained. The results of this paper turn out to be fundamental for the construction of (bicovariant) differential calculi on braided Hopf alg…
Braided-enriched monoidal categories were introduced in work of Morrison-Penneys, where they were characterized using braided central functors. Recent work of Kong-Yuan-Zhang-Zheng and Dell extended this characterization to an equivalence of 2-categories. Since their introduction, braided-enriched fusion categories have been used to describe certain phenomena in topologically ordered systems in theoretical condensed matter physics. While these systems are unitary, there was previously no general notion of unitarity for enriched categories in the literature. We supply the notion of unitarity fo…
We develop the theory of weak bimonoids in braided monoidal categories and show them to be quantum categories in a certain sense. Weak Hopf monoids are shown to be quantum groupoids. Each separable Frobenius monoid R leads to a weak Hopf monoid R \otimes R.
Monoidal categories enriched in a braided monoidal category $\mathcal{V}$ are classified by braided oplax monoidal functors from $\mathcal{V}$ to the Drinfeld centers of ordinary monoidal categories. In this article, we prove that this classifying functor is strongly monoidal if and only if the original $\mathcal{V}$-monoidal category is tensored over $\mathcal{V}$. We then define a completion operation which produces a tensored $\mathcal{V}$-monoidal category $\overline{\mathcal{C}}$ from an arbitrary $\mathcal{V}$-monoidal category $\mathcal{C}$, and we determine many equivalent conditions w…
In this paper, the Drinfeld center of a monoidal category is generalized to a class of mixed Drinfeld centers. This gives a unified picture for the Drinfeld center and a natural Heisenberg analogue. Further, there is an action of the former on the latter. This picture is translated to a description in terms of Yetter-Drinfeld and Hopf modules over quasi-bialgebras in a braided monoidal category. Via braided reconstruction theory, intrinsic definitions of braided Drinfeld and Heisenberg doubles are obtained, together with a generalization of the result in [Lu94] that the Heisenberg double is a …
In this paper we introduce the notion of weak operator and the theory of Yetter-Drinfeld modules over a weak braided Hopf algebra with invertible antipode in a strict monoidal category. We prove that the class of such objects constitutes a non strict monoidal category. It is also shown that this category is not trivial, that is to say that it admits objects generated by the adjoint action (coaction) associated to the weak braided Hopf algebra.
Braided deformations of (symmetric) monoidal categories are related to Vassiliev theory by a direct generalization of well-known results relating "quantum" knot invariants to Vassiliev invariants. The deformation theory of braidings is subsumed by the deformation theory of monoidal functors, which proves surprisingly rich: the deformation complex of a monoidal functor has the same structure as the deformation complex of an algebra, including a pre-Lie structure, from which it is see that the problem of deforming monoidal functors (including braidings) is purely cohomological in nature.
We extend the formalism of Hopf cyclic cohomology to the context of braided categories. For a Hopf algebra in a braided monoidal abelian category we introduce the notion of stable anti-Yetter-Drinfeld module. We associate a para-cocyclic and a cocyclic object to a braided Hopf algebra endowed with a braided modular pair in involution in the sense of Connes and Moscovici. When the braiding is symmetric the full formalism of Hopf cyclic cohomology with coefficients can be extended to our categorical setting.
We introduce and study symmetric and exterior algebras in braided monoidal categories such as the category O for quantum groups. We relate our braided symmetric algebras and braided exterior algebas with their classical counterparts.
We describe a class of examples of braided monoidal categories which are built from Hopf algebras in symmetric categories. The construction is motivated by a calculation in two-dimensional conformal field theory and is tailored to contain the braided monoidal categories occurring in the study of the Ising model, their generalisation to Tamabara-Yamagami categories, and categories occurring for symplectic fermions.
Let $k$ be a field, $k^*=k\setminus\{0\}$ and $C_2$ the cyclic group of order 2. In this note we compute all the braided monoidal structures on the category of $k$-vector spaces graded by the Klein group $C_2\times C_2$. Actually, for the monoidal structures we will compute the explicit form of the 3-cocycles on $C_2\times C_2$ with coefficients in $k^*$, while for the braided monoidal structures we will compute the explicit form of the abelian 3-cocycles on $C_2\times C_2$ with coefficients in $k^*$. In particular, this will allow us to produce examples of quasi-Hopf algebras and weak braided…
By considering a suitable renormalization of the Temperley--Lieb category, we study its specialization to the case $q=0$. Unlike the $q\neq 0$ case, the obtained monoidal category, $\mathcal{TL}_0(\Bbbk)$, is not rigid or braided. We provide a closed formula for the Jones--Wenzl projectors in $\mathcal{TL}_0(\Bbbk)$ and give semisimple bases for its endomorphism algebras. We explain how to obtain the same basis using the representation theory of finite inverse monoids, via the associated Möbius inversion. We then describe a coboundary structure on $\mathcal{TL}_0(\Bbbk)$ and show that its idem…
We give an alternative presentation of braided monoidal categories. Instead of the usual associativity and braiding we have just one constraint (the b-structure). In the unital case, the coherence conditions for a b-structure are shown to be equivalent to the usual associativity, unit and braiding axioms. We also discuss the next dimensional version, that is, b-structures on bicategories. As an application, we show how special b-categories result in the Yang-Baxter equation, and how special b-bicategories produce Zamolodchikov's tetrahedron equation. Finally, we define a cohomology theory (the…
Henriques and Kamnitzer have defined a commutor for the category of crystals of a finite-dimensional complex reductive Lie algebra that gives it the structure of a coboundary category (somewhat analogous to a braided monoidal category). Kamnitzer and Tingley then gave an alternative definition of the crystal commutor, using Kashiwara's involution on Verma crystals, that generalizes to the setting of symmetrizable Kac-Moody algebras. In the current paper, we give a geometric interpretation of the crystal commutor using quiver varieties. Equipped with this interpretation we show that the commuto…
We study versions of the categories of Yetter-Drinfel'd modules over a Hopf algebra $H$ in a braided monoidal category $\C$. Contrarywise to Bespalov's approach, all our structures live in $\C$. This forces $H$ to be transparent or equivalently to lie in Müger's center $\Z_2(\C)$ of $\C$. We prove that versions of the categories of Yetter-Drinfel'd modules in $\C$ are braided monoidally isomorphic to the categories of (left/right) modules over the Drinfel'd double $D(H)\in\C$ for $H$ finite. We obtain that these categories polarize into two disjoint groups of mutually isomorphic braided monoid…
Following an idea of A. Berenstein, we define a commutor for the category of crystals of a finite dimensional complex reductive Lie algebra. We show that this endows the category of crystals with the structure of a coboundary category. Similar to the case of braided categories, there is a group naturally acting on multiple tensor products in coboundary categories. We call this group the cactus group and identify it as the fundamental group of the moduli space of marked real genus zero stable curves.
The chiral conformal field theory of free super-bosons is generated by weight one currents whose mode algebra is the affinisation of an abelian Lie super-algebra h with non-degenerate super-symmetric pairing. The mode algebras of a single free boson and of a single pair of symplectic fermions arise for even|odd dimension 1|0 and 0|2 of h, respectively. In this paper, the representations of the untwisted mode algebra of free super-bosons are equipped with a tensor product, a braiding, and an associator. In the symplectic fermion case, i.e. if h is purely odd, the braided monoidal structure is e…
With the motivation of giving a more precise estimation of the quantum Brauer group of a Hopf algebra $H$ over a field $k$ we construct an exact sequence containing the quantum Brauer group of a Hopf algebra in a certain braided monoidal category. Let $B$ be a Hopf algebra in $\C=_H ^H\YD$, the category of Yetter-Drinfel'd modules over $H$. We consider the quantum Brauer group $\BQ(\C; B)$ of $B$ in $\C$, which is isomorphic to the usual quantum Brauer group $\BQ(k; B\rtimes H)$ of the Radford biproduct Hopf algebra $B\rtimes H$. We show that under certain symmetricity condition on the braidin…
Braided bialgebras of type one in abelian braided monoidal categories are characterized as braided graded bialgebras which are strongly $\mathbb{N}$-graded both as an algebra and as a coalgebra.
Covariant Hom-bimodules are introduced and the structure theory of them in the Hom-setting is studied in a detailed way. The category of bicovariant Hom-bimodules is proved to be a (pre)braided monoidal category and its structure theory is also provided in coordinate form. The notion of Hom-Yetter-Drinfel'd modules is presented and it is shown that the category of Hom-Yetter-Drinfel'd modules is a (pre)braided tensor category as well. As one of the main results, a (pre)braided monoidal equivalence between these tensor categories is verified, which extends the fundamental theorem of Hom-Hopf mo…
Based on the novel notion of `weakly counital fusion morphism', regular weak multiplier bimonoids in braided monoidal categories are introduced. They generalize weak multiplier bialgebras over fields and multiplier bimonoids in braided monoidal categories. Under some assumptions the so-called base object of a regular weak multiplier bimonoid is shown to carry a coseparable comonoid structure; hence to possess a monoidal category of bicomodules. In this case, appropriately defined modules over a regular weak multiplier bimonoid are proven to constitute a monoidal category with a strict monoidal…
We study braided Hochschild and cyclic homology of ribbon algebras in braided monoidal categories, as introduced by Baez and by Akrami and Majid. We compute this invariant for several examples coming from quantum groups and braided groups.
We provide explicit and unified formulae for the normalized 3-cocycles on arbitrary finite abelian groups. As an application, we compute all the braided monoidal structures on linear Gr-categories.
Joyal and Street note in their paper on braided monoidal categories [Braided tensor categories, Advances in Math. 102(1993) 20-78] that the 2-category V-Cat of categories enriched over a braided monoidal category V is not itself braided in any way that is based upon the braiding of V. The exception that they mention is the case in which V is symmetric, which leads to V-Cat being symmetric as well. The symmetry in V-Cat is based upon the symmetry of V. The motivation behind this paper is in part to describe how these facts relating V and V-Cat are in turn related to a categorical analogue of to…
We show that, under some mild conditions, a bialgebra in an abelian and coabelian braided monoidal category has a weak projection onto a formally smooth (as a coalgebra) sub-bialgebra with antipode; see Theorem 1.12. In the second part of the paper we prove that bialgebras with weak projections are cross product bialgebras; see Theorem 2.12. In the particular case when the bialgebra $A$ is cocommutative and a certain cocycle associated to the weak projection is trivial we prove that $A$ is a double cross product, or biproduct in Madjid's terminology. The last result is based on a universal pro…
Given a category with a bifunctor and natural isomorphisms for associativity, commutativity and left and right identity we do not assume that extra constraining diagrams hold. We introduce groupoids of coupling trees to describe a version of coherence that is weaker than the usual notion of monoidal coherence.
Let ${\mathfrak g}$ be a finite dimensional complex semisimple Lie algebra. The finite dimensional representations of the quantized enveloping algebra $U_q({\mathfrak g})$ form a braided monoidal category $O_{int}$. We show that the category of finite dimensional representations of a quantum symmetric pair coideal subalgebra $B_{c,s}$ of $U_q({\mathfrak g})$ is a braided module category over an equivariantization of $O_{int}$. The braiding for $B_{c,s}$ is realized by a universal K-matrix which lies in a completion of $B_{c,s}\otimes U_q({\mathfrak g})$. We apply these results to describe a di…
We classify various types of graded extensions of a finite braided tensor category $\cal B$ in terms of its $2$-categorical Picard groups. In particular, we prove that braided extensions of $\cal B$ by a finite group $A$ correspond to braided monoidal $2$-functors from $A$ to the braided $2$-categorical Picard group of $\cal B$ (consisting of invertible central $\cal B$-module categories). Such functors can be expressed in terms of the Eilnberg-Mac~Lane cohomology. We describe in detail braided $2$-categorical Picard groups of symmetric fusion categories and of pointed braided fusion categorie…
In braided tensor categories we show the Maschke's theorem and give the necessary and sufficient conditions for double cross biproducts and crossbiproducts and biproducts to be bialgebras. We obtain the factorization theorem for braided Hopf algebras; In symmetric tensor categories, we show the duality theorem and construct quantum double; In ordinary vector space category with ordinary twist, we obtain the relation between the global dimension, the weak dimension, the Jacbson radical, Baer radical of algebra $R$ and its crossed product $R #_σH$. We also give the relation between the decomposi…
In this paper we investigate the categories of braided objects, algebras and bialgebras in a given monoidal category, some pairs of adjoint functors between them and their relations. In particular we construct a braided primitive functor and its left adjoint, the braided tensor bialgebra functor, from the category of braided objects to the one of braided bialgebras. The latter is obtained by a specific elaborated construction introducing a braided tensor algebra functor as a left adjoint of the forgetful functor from the category of braided algebras to the one of braided objects. The behaviour…
The 2-category V-Cat of categories enriched over a braided monoidal category V is not itself braided in any way that is based upon the braiding of V. The exception is the case in which V is symmetric, which leads to V-Cat being symmetric as well. This paper describes how these facts are related to a categorical analogue of topological delooping. It seems that the analogy of loop spaces is a good guide for how to define the concept of enrichment over various types of monoidal objects, including k-fold monoidal categories and their higher dimensional counterparts. The main result is that for V a…
In our previous work, Hopf cyclic cohomology in braided monoidal categories, we extended the formalism of Hopf cyclic cohomology due to Connes and Moscovici and the more general case of Hopf cyclic cohomology with coefficients to the context of abelian braided monoidal categories. In this paper we go one step further in reducing the restriction of the ambient category being symmetric. We let the ambient category to be non-symmetric but assume only the restriction on the braid map for the Hopf algebra object (in that category) which is the main player in the theory. In the case of Hopf cyclic c…
Any simplicial Hopf algebra involves $2n$ different projections between the Hopf algebras $H_n,H_{n-1}$ for each $n \geq 1$. The word projection, here meaning a tuple $\partial \colon H_{n} \to H_{n-1}$ and $i \colon H_{n-1} \to H_{n}$ of Hopf algebra morphisms, such that $\partial \, i = \mathrm{id}$. Given a Hopf algebra projection $(\partial \colon I \to H,i)$ in a braided monoidal category $\mathfrak{C}$, one can obtain a new Hopf algebra structure living in the category of Yetter-Drinfeld modules over $H$, due to Radford's theorem. The underlying set of this Hopf algebra is obtained by an…
