The goal of this paper is to prove coherence results with respect to relational graphs for monoidal endofunctors, i.e. endofunctors of a monoidal category that preserve the monoidal structure up to a natural transformation that need not be an isomorphism. These results are proved first in the absence of symmetry in the monoidal structure, and then with this symmetry. In the later parts of the paper the coherence results are extended to monoidal endofunctors in monoidal categories that have diagonal or codiagonal natural transformations, or where the monoidal structure is given by finite products or coproducts. Monoidal endofunctors are interesting because they stand behind monoidal monads and comonads, for which coherence will be proved in a sequel to this paper.
The goal of this paper is to prove coherence results with respect to relational graphs for monoidal monads and comonads, i.e. monads and comonads in a monoidal category such that the endofunctor of the monad or comonad is a monoidal functor (this means that it preserves the monoidal structure up to a natural transformation that need not be an isomorphism). These results are proved first in the absence of symmetry in the monoidal structure, and then with this symmetry. The monoidal structure is also allowed to be given with finite products or finite coproducts. Monoidal comonads with finite pro…
We prove a coherence theorem for braided monoidal bicategories and relate it to the coherence theorem for monoidal bicategories. We show how coherence for these structures can be interpretted topologically using up-to-homotopy operad actions and the algebraic classification of surface braids.
We introduce homotopical methods based on rewriting on higher-dimensional categories to prove coherence results in categories with an algebraic structure. We express the coherence problem for (symmetric) monoidal categories as an asphericity problem for a track category and we use rewriting methods on polygraphs to solve it. The setting is extended to more general coherence problems, seen as 3-dimensional word problems in a track category, including the case of braided monoidal categories.
A symmetric monoidal category is a category equipped with an associative and commutative (binary) product and an object which is the unit for the product. In fact, those properties only hold up to natural isomorphisms which satisfy some coherence conditions. The coherence theorem asserts the commutativity of all linear diagrams involving the left and right unitors, the associator and the braiding. We prove the coherence for symmetric monoidal categories using a homotopical method based on rewriting. For that scope, we detail the con vergence proof of Lafont's string diagram rewriting system wh…
This paper proves three different coherence theorems for symmetric monoidal bicategories. First, we show that in a free symmetric monoidal bicategory every diagram of 2-cells commutes. Second, we show that this implies that the free symmetric monoidal bicategory on one object is equivalent, as a symmetric monoidal bicategory, to the discrete symmetric monoidal bicategory given by the disjoint union of the symmetric groups. Third, we show that every symmetric monoidal bicategory is equivalent to a strict one. We give two topological applications of these coherence results. First, we show that t…
I motivate a variation (due to K. Szlachányi) of monoidal categories called skew-monoidal categories where the unital and associativity laws are not required to be isomorphisms, only natural transformations. Coherence has to be formulated differently than in the well-known monoidal case. In my (to my knowledge new) version, it becomes a statement of uniqueness of normalizing rewrites. I present a proof of this coherence theorem and also formalize it fully in the dependently typed programming language Agda.
It has long been known that every weak monoidal category A is equivalent via monoidal functors and monoidal natural transformations to a strict monoidal category st(A). We generalise the definition of weak monoidal category to give a definition of weak P-category for any strongly regular (operadic) theory P, and show that every weak P-category is equivalent via P-functors and P-transformations to a strict P-category. This strictification functor is then shown to have an interesting universal property.
Given an algebraic theory which can be described by a (possibly symmetric) operad $P$, we propose a definition of the \emph{weakening} (or \emph{categorification}) of the theory, in which equations that hold strictly for $P$-algebras hold only up to coherent isomorphism. This generalizes the theories of monoidal categories and symmetric monoidal categories, and several related notions defined in the literature. Using this definition, we generalize the result that every monoidal category is monoidally equivalent to a strict monoidal category, and show that the "strictification" functor has an i…
Coherence theorems are fundamental to how we think about monoidal categories and their generalizations. In this paper we revisit Mac Lane's original proof of coherence for monoidal categories using the Grothendieck construction. This perspective makes the approach of Mac Lane's proof very amenable to generalization. We use the technique to give efficient proofs of many standard coherence theorems and new coherence results for bicategories with shadow and for their functors.
It is shown that coherence conditions for monoidal categories concerning associativity are analogous to coherence conditions for symmetric or braided strictly monoidal categories, where associativity arrows are identities. Mac Lane's pentagonal coherence condition for associativity is decomposed into conditions concerning commutativity, among which we have a condition analogous to naturality and a degenerate case of Mac Lane's hexagonal condition for commutativity. This decomposition is analogous to the derivation of the Yang-Baxter equation from Mac Lane's hexagon and the naturality of commut…
It is proved that MacLane's coherence results for monoidal and symmetric monoidal categories can be extended to some other categories with multiplication; namely, to relevant, affine and cartesian categories. All results are formulated in terms of natural transformations equipped with ``graphs'' (g-natural transformations), and corresponding morphism theorems are given as consequences. Using these results, some basic relations between the free categories of these classes are obtained.
This paper studies questions of coherence and strictification related to self-similarity - the identity $S\cong S\otimes S$ in a (semi-)monoidal category. Based on Saavedra's theory of units, we first demonstrate that strict self-similarity cannot simultaneously occur with strict associativity -- i.e. no monoid may have a strictly associative (semi-)monoidal tensor, although many monoids have a semi-monoidal tensor associative up to isomorphism. We then give a simple coherence result for the arrows exhibiting self-similarity and use this to describe a `strictification procedure' that gives a s…
We exhibit a monoidal structure on the category of finite sets indexed by P-trees for a finitary polynomial endofunctor P. This structure categorifies the monoid scheme (over Spec N) whose semiring of functions is (a P-version of) the Connes--Kreimer bialgebra H of rooted trees (a Hopf algebra after base change to Z and collapsing H_0). The monoidal structure is itself given by a polynomial functor, represented by three easily described set maps; we show that these maps are the same as those occurring in the polynomial representation of the free monad on P.
Proofs of coherence in category theory, starting from Mac Lane's original proof of coherence for monoidal categories, are sometimes based on confluence techniques analogous to what one finds in the lambda calculus, or in term-rewriting systems in general. This applies to coherence results that assert that a category is a preorder, i.e. that ``all diagrams commute''. This note is about this analogy, paying particular attention to cases where the category for which coherence is proved is not a groupoid.
We introduce categorical models of $N_\infty$ spaces, which we call normed symmetric monoidal categories (NSMCs). These are ordinary symmetric monoidal categories equipped with compatible families of norm maps, and when specialized to a particular class of examples, they reveal a connection between the equivariant symmetric monoidal categories of Guillou-May-Merling-Osorno and those of Hill-Hopkins. We also give an operadic interpretation of the Mac Lane coherence theorem and generalize it to include NSMCs. Among other things, this theorem ensures that the classifying space of a NSMC is a $N_\…
This paper proves coherence results for categories with a natural transformation called \emph{intermutation} made of arrows from $(A\wedge B)\vee(C\wedge D)$ to ${(A\vee C)\wedge(B\vee D)}$, for $\wedge$ and $\vee$ being two biendofunctors. Intermutation occurs in iterated, or $n$-fold, monoidal categories, which were introduced in connection with $n$-fold loop spaces, and for which a related, but different, coherence result was obtained previously by Balteanu, Fiedorowicz, Schw\" anzl and Vogt. The results of the present paper strengthen up to a point this previous result, and show that two-f…
Coherence theorems for covariant structures carried by a category have traditionally relied on the underlying term rewriting system of the structure being terminating and confluent. While this holds in a variety of cases, it is not a feature that is inherent to the coherence problem itself. This is demonstrated by the theory of iterated monoidal categories, which model iterated loop spaces and have a coherence theorem but fail to be confluent. We develop a framework for expressing coherence problems in terms of term rewriting systems equipped with a two dimensional congruence. Within this fram…
A coherence result for symmetric monoidal closed categories with biproducts is shown in this paper. It is explained how to prove, by using the same technique, coherence for compact closed categories with biproducts and for dagger compact closed categories with dagger biproducts.
It is common to encounter symmetric monoidal categories $\mathcal{C}$ for which every object is equipped with an algebraic structure, in a way that is compatible with the monoidal product and unit in $\mathcal{C}$. We define this formally and say that $\mathcal{C}$ supplies the algebraic structure. For example, the category $\mathsf{Rel}$ of relations between sets has monoidal structures given by both cartesian product and disjoint union, and with respect to either one it supplies comonoids. We prove several facts about the notion of supply, e.g. that the associators, unitors, and braiding of …
We introduce a tensor product for symmetric monoidal categories with the following properties. Let SMC denote the 2-category with objects small symmetric monoidal categories, arrows symmetric monoidal functors and 2-cells monoidal natural transformations. Our tensor product together with a suitable unit is part of a structure on SMC that is a 2-categorical version of the symmetric monoidal closed categories. This structure is surprisingly simple. In particular the arrows involved in the associativity and symmetry laws for the tensor and in the unit cancellation laws are 2-natural and satisfy c…
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.
We prove a coherence theorem for invertible objects in a symmetric monoidal category. This is used to deduce associativity, skew-commutativity, and related results for multi-graded morphism rings, generalizing the well-known versions for stable homotopy groups.
Skew monoidal categories are monoidal categories with non-invertible `coherence' morphisms. As shown in a previous paper bialgebroids over a ring R can be characterized as the closed skew monoidal structures on the category Mod R in which the unit object is R. This offers a new approach to bialgebroids and Hopf algebroids. Little is known about skew monoidal structures on general categories. In the present paper we study the one-object case: skew monoidal monoids (SMM). We show that they possess a dual pair of bialgebroids describing the symmetries of the (co)module categories of the SMM. Thes…
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…
Szlachányi's skew monoidal categories are a well-motivated variation of monoidal categories in which the unitors and associator are not required to be natural isomorphisms, but merely natural transformations in a particular direction. We present a sequent calculus for skew monoidal categories, building on the recent formulation by one of the authors of a sequent calculus for the Tamari order (skew semigroup categories). In this calculus, antecedents consist of a stoup (an optional formula) followed by a context, and the connectives behave like in the standard monoidal sequent calculus except t…
This paper is about a correspondence between monoidal structures in categories and $n$-fold loop spaces. We develop a new syntactical technique whose role is to substitute the coherence results, which were the main ingredients in the proofs that the Segal-Thomason bar construction provides an appropriate simplicial space. The results we present here enable more common categories to enter this delooping machine. For example, such is the category of finite sets with two monoidal structures brought by the disjoint union and Cartesian product.
Poly-bicategories generalise planar polycategories in the same way as bicategories generalise monoidal categories. In a poly-bicategory, the existence of enough 2-cells satisfying certain universal properties (representability) induces coherent algebraic structure on the 2-graph of single-input, single-output 2-cells. A special case of this theory was used by Hermida to produce a proof of strictification for bicategories. No full strictification is possible for higher-dimensional categories, seemingly due to problems with 2-cells that have degenerate boundaries; it was conjectured by C. Simpso…
Hypergraph categories have been rediscovered at least five times, under various names, including well-supported compact closed categories, dgs-monoidal categories, and dungeon categories. Perhaps the reason they keep being reinvented is two-fold: there are many applications---including to automata, databases, circuits, linear relations, graph rewriting, and belief propagation---and yet the standard definition is so involved and ornate as to be difficult to find in the literature. Indeed, a hypergraph category is, roughly speaking, a "symmetric monoidal category in which each object is equipped…
In this chapter we survey some particular topics in category theory in a somewhat unconventional manner. Our main focus will be on monoidal categories, mostly symmetric ones, for which we propose a physical interpretation. These are particularly relevant for quantum foundations and for quantum informatics. Special attention is given to the category which has finite dimensional Hilbert spaces as objects, linear maps as morphisms, and the tensor product as its monoidal structure (FdHilb). We also provide a detailed discussion of the category which has sets as objects, relations as morphisms, and…
