We prove a constructive existence theorem for abelian envelopes of non-abelian monoidal categories. This establishes a new tool for the construction of tensor categories. As an example we obtain new proofs for the existence of several universal tensor categories as conjectured by Deligne. Another example constructs tensor categories in positive characteristic via tilting modules for SL(2).
We give several criteria to decide whether a given tensor category is the abelian envelope of a fixed symmetric monoidal category. As a main result we prove that the category of finite-dimensional representations of a semisimple simply connected algebraic group is the abelian envelope of the category of tilting modules. Benson and Etingof conjectured that a certain limit of finite symmetric tensor categories is tensor equivalent to the finite dimensional representations of $SL_2$ in characteristic $2$. We use our results on the abelian envelopes to prove this conjecture and its variants for an…
We study abelian envelopes for pseudo-tensor categories with the property that every object in the envelope is a quotient of an object in the pseudo-tensor category. We establish an intrinsic criterion on pseudo-tensor categories for the existence of an abelian envelope satisfying this quotient property. This allows us to interpret the extension of scalars and Deligne tensor product of tensor categories as abelian envelopes, and to enlarge the class of tensor categories for which all extensions of scalars and tensor products are known to remain tensor categories. For an affine group scheme G, …
We propose a construction of the monoidal envelope of $\infty$-operads in the model of Segal dendroidal spaces, and use it to define cocartesian fibrations of such. We achieve this by viewing the dendroidal category as a "plus construction" of the category of pointed finite sets, and work in the more general language of algebraic patterns for Segal conditions. Finally, we rephrase Lurie's definition of cartesian structures as exhibiting the categorical fibrations coming from envelopes, and deduce a straightening/unstraightening equivalence for dendroidal spaces.
We show that each rigid monoidal category A over a field defines a family of universal tensor categories, which together classify all faithful monoidal functors from A to tensor categories. Each of the universal tensor categories classifies monoidal functors of a given 'homological kernel' and can be realised as a sheaf category, not necessarily on A. This yields a theory of 'local abelian envelope' which completes the notion of monoidal abelian envelopes.
This paper clarifies basic definitions in the universal construction of topological theories and monoidal categories. The definition of the universal construction is given for various types of monoidal categories, including rigid and symmetric. It is also explained how to set up the universal construction for non-monoidal categories. The second part of the paper explains how to associate a rigid symmetric monoidal category to a small category, a sort of the Brauer envelope of a category. The universal construction for the Brauer envelopes generalizes some earlier work of the first two authors …
The analogy between Yetter's deformation theory form (lax) monoidal functors and Gerstenahaber's deformation theory for associative algebras is solidified by shown that under reasonable conditions the category of functors with an action of a lax monoidal functor is abelian, that an analogue of the Hochschild cohomology of an algebra with coefficients in a bimodule exists for monoidal functors, and is given by right derived functors. The deformation cohmology of a monoidal natural transformation is shown to be a special case.
We give an explicit construction of the free monoid in monoidal abelian categories when the monoidal product does not necessarily preserve coproducts. We apply it to several new monoidal categories that appeared recently in the theory of Koszul duality for operads and props. This gives a conceptual explanation of the form of the free operad, free dioperad, free properad and free prop.
We show that, with some technical conditions, an abelian category can be embedded into the category of bimodules over a ring. The case of semisimple rigid monoidal categories is studied in more detail.
In our recent paper [Sh1] a version of the "generalized Deligne conjecture" for abelian $n$-fold monoidal categories is proven. For $n=1$ this result says that, given an abelian monoidal $k$-linear category $\mathscr{A}$ with unit $e$, $k$ a field of characteristic 0, the dg vector space $\mathrm{RHom}_{\mathscr{A}}(e,e)$ is the first component of a Leinster 1-monoid in $\mathscr{A}lg(k)$ (provided a rather mild condition on the monoidal and the abelian structures in $\mathscr{A}$, called homotopy compatibility, is fulfilled). In the present paper, we introduce a new concept of a ${\it graded}…
To characterize categorical constraints - associativity, commutativity and monoidality - in the context of quasimonoidal categories, from a cohomological point of view, we define the notion of a parity (quasi)complex. Applied to groups gives non-abelian cohomology. The categorification - functor from groups to monoidal categories - provides the correspondence between the respective parity (quasi)complexes and allows to interpret 1-cochains as functors, 2-cocycles - monoidal structures, 3-cocycles - associators. The cohomology spaces H3, H2, H1, H0 correspond as usual to quasi-extensions, exten…
We consider Frobenius algebras and their bimodules in certain abelian monoidal categories. In particular we study the Picard group of the category of bimodules over a Frobenius algebra, i.e. the group of isomorphism classes of invertible bimodules. The Rosenberg-Zelinsky sequence describes a homomorphism from the group of algebra automorphisms to the Picard group, which however is typically not surjective. We investigate under which conditions there exists a Morita equivalent Frobenius algebra for which the corresponding homomorphism is surjective. One motivation for our considerations is the …
The structure of monoidal categories in which every arrow is invertible is analyzed in this paper, where we develop a 3-dimensional Schreier-Grothendieck theory of non-abelian factor sets for their classification. In particular, we state and prove precise classification theorems for those monoidal groupoids whose isotropy groups are all abelian, as well as for their homomorphisms, by means of Leech's cohomology groups of monoids.
We prove 2-categorical conservativity for any {0,T}-free fragment of MALL over its corresponding intuitionistic version: that is, that the universal map from a closed symmetric monoidal category to the *-autonomous category that it freely generates is fully faithful, and similarly for other doctrines. This implies that linear logics and graphical calculi for *-autonomous categories can also be interpreted canonically in closed symmetric monoidal categories. In particular, every closed symmetric monoidal category can be fully embedded in a *-autonomous category, preserving both tensor products …
We use Lurie's symmetric monoidal envelope functor to give two new descriptions of $\infty$-operads: as certain symmetric monoidal $\infty$-categories whose underlying symmetric monoidal $\infty$-groupoids are free, and as certain symmetric monoidal $\infty$-categories equipped with a symmetric monoidal functor to finite sets (with disjoint union as tensor product). The latter leads to a third description of $\infty$-operads, as a localization of a presheaf $\infty$-category, and we use this to give a simple proof of the equivalence between Lurie's and Barwick's models for $\infty$-operads.
We define the Hochschild complex and cohomology of a ring object in a monoidal category enriched over abelian groups. We interpret the cohomology groups and prove that the cohomology ring is graded-commutative.
It is known that monoidal functors between internal groupoids in the category Grp of groups constitute the bicategory of fractions of the 2-category Grpd(Grp) of internal groupoids, internal functors and internal natural transformations in Grp with respect to weak equivalences. Monoidal functors can be described equivalently by a kind of weak morphisms introduced by B. Noohi under the name of "butter ies". In order to internalize monoidal functors in a wide context, we introduce the notion of internal butterflies between internal crossed modules in a semi-abelian category C, and we show that t…
In this paper, we state the notion of morphisms in the category of abelian crossed modules and prove that this category is equivalent to the category of strict Picard categories and regular symmetric monoidal functors. The theory of obstructions for symmetric monoidal functors and symmetric cohomology groups are applied to show a treatment of the group extension problem of the type of an abelian crossed module.
This paper expands further on a category theoretical formulation of Hochschild cohomology for monoid objects in monoidal categories enriched over abelian groups, which has been studied in arXiv:1605.00842. This topic was also presented at ISCRA, Isfahan, Iran, April 2019. The present paper aims to provide a more intuitive formulation of the Hochschild cochain complex and extend the definition to Hochschild cohomology with values in a bimodule object. In addition, an equivalent formulation of the Hochschild cochain complex in terms of a cosimplicial object in the category of abelian groups is p…
We introduce the concept of cotensor coalgebra for a given bicomodule over a coalgebra in an abelian monoidal category. Under some further conditions we show that such a cotensor coalgebra exists and satisfies a meaningful universal property. We prove that this coalgebra is formally smooth whenever the comodule is relative injective and the coalgebra itself is formally smooth.
The abelian category of tetramodules over an associative bialgebra $A$ is related with the Gerstenhaber-Schack (GS) cohomology as $Ext_\Tetra(A,A)=H_\GS(A)$. We construct a 2-fold monoidal structure on the category of tetramodules of a bialgebra. Suppose $C$ is an abelian $n$-fold monoidal category with the unit object $A$. We prove, provided some condition (*), that $Ext_C(A,A)$ is an $(n+1)$-algebra. In the case of bialgebras this condition (*) is satisfied when $A$ is a Hopf algebra. Finally, the GS cohomology of a Hopf algebra is a 3-algebra. As well, we consider this kind of questions of …
Let A be a symmetric monoidal closed exact category. This category is a natural framework to define the notions of purity and flatness. We show that an object F in A is flat if and only if any conflation ending in F is pure. Furthermore, we prove a generalization of the Lambek Theorem ([La64]) in A. In the case A is a quasi-abelian category, we prove that A has enough pure injective objects.
Starting from an abelian rigid braided monoidal category C we define an abelian rigid monoidal category C_F which captures some aspects of perturbed conformal defects in two-dimensional conformal field theory. Namely, for V a rational vertex operator algebra we consider the charge-conjugation CFT constructed from V (the Cardy case). Then C = Rep(V) and an object in C_F corresponds to a conformal defect condition together with a direction of perturbation. We assign to each object in C_F an operator on the space of states of the CFT, the perturbed defect operator, and show that the assignment fa…
What are the fiber functors on small additive monoidal categories C which are not abelian? We give an answer which leads to a new Tannaka duality theorem for bialgebroids generalizing earlier results by Phung Ho Hai. The construction reveals a sheaf theoretic interpretation in so far as the reconstructed bialgebroid H has comodule category equivalent to the category of T-sheaves w.r.t. a monoidal Grothendieck topology on C. We also prove an existence theorem for fiber functors on small additive monoidal categories with bounded fusion and weak kernels. For certain autonomous categories a genera…
We prove general results about completeness of cotorsion theories and existence of covers and envelopes in locally presentable abelian categories, extending the well-established theory for module categories and Grothendieck categories. These results are then applied to the categories of contramodules over topological rings, which provide examples and counterexamples.
We describe (braided-)commutative algebras with non-degenerate multiplicative form in certain braided monoidal categories, corresponding to abelian metric Lie algebras (so-called Drinfeld categories). We also describe local modules over these algebras and classify commutative algebras with finite number of simple local modules.
We define a notion of tensor product of bimodule categories and prove that with this product the 2-category of C-bimodule categories for fixed tensor C is a monoidal 2-category in the sense of Kapranov and Voevodsky. We then provide a monoidal-structure preserving 2-equivalence between the 2-category of C-bimodule categories and Z(C)-module categories (module categories over the center). For finite group G we show that de-equivariantization is equivalent to tensor product over category Rep(G) of finite dimensional representations. We derive Rep(G)-module fusion rules and determine the group of…
Let $U:\mathcal{C}\rightarrow\mathcal{D}$ be a strong monoidal functor between abelian monoidal categories admitting a right adjoint $R$, such that $R$ is exact, faithful and the adjunction $U\dashv R$ is coHopf. Building on the work of Balan, we show that $R$ is separable (resp., special) Frobenius monoidal if and only if $R(\mathbb{1}_{\mathcal{D}})$ is a separable (resp., special) Frobenius algebra in $\mathcal{C}$. If further, $\mathcal{C},\mathcal{D}$ are pivotal (resp., ribbon) categories and $U$ is a pivotal (resp., braided pivotal) functor, then $R$ is a pivotal (resp., ribbon) functor…
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…
We prove a version of the Deligne conjecture for $n$-fold monoidal abelian categories $A$ over a field $k$ of characteristic 0, assuming some compatibility and non-degeneracy conditions for $A$. The output of our construction is a weak Leinster $(n,1)$-algebra over $k$, a relaxed version of the concept of Leinster $n$-algebra in $Alg(k)$. The difference between the Leinster original definition and our relaxed one is apparent when $n>1$, for $n=1$ both concepts coincide. We believe that there exists a functor from weak Leinster $(n,1)$-algebras over $k$ to $C(E_{n+1},k)$-algebras, well-defined …
We extend the calculus of relations to embed a regular category A into a family of pseudo-abelian tensor categories T(A,d) depending on a degree function d. Under the condition that all objects of A have only finitely many subobjects, our main results are as follows: 1. Let N be the maximal proper tensor ideal of T(A,d). We show that T(A,d)/N is semisimple provided that A is exact and Mal'cev. Thereby, we produce many new semisimple, hence abelian, tensor categories. 2. Using lattice theory, we give a simple numerical criterion for the vanishing of N. 3. We determine all degree functions for w…
In this paper we introduce the notion of a categorical Mackey functor. This categorical notion allows us to obtain new Mackey functors by passing to Quillen's $K$-theory of the corresponding abelian categories. In the case of an action by monoidal autoequivalences on a monoidal category the Mackey functor obtained at the level of Grothendieck rings has in fact a Green functor structure.
There is a long-standing problem of algebra to extend the symmetric monoidal structure of abelian groups, given by the tensor product, to a non abelian setting. In this paper we show that such an extension is possible. Morover our non abelian tensor product remains even right exact and balanced. We describe the new non-abelian tensor product in the context of quadratic algebra which extends linear algebra.
The Verdier quotient $\mathcal{T}/\mathcal{S}$ of a triangulated category $\mathcal{T}$ by a triangulated subcategory $\mathcal{S}$ is defined by a universal property with respect to triangulated functors out of $\mathcal{T}$. However, $\mathcal{T}/\mathcal{S}$ is in fact a localization of $\mathcal{T}$, i.e., it is obtained from $\mathcal{T}$ by formally inverting a class of morphisms. We establish the analogous result for small stable quasi-categories. As an application, we explore the compatibility of Verdier quotients with symmetric monoidal structures. In particular, we record a few usefu…
In this monograph, we extend S. Schwede's exact sequence interpretation of the Gerstenhaber bracket in Hochschild cohomology to certain exact and monoidal categories. Therefore we establish an explicit description of an isomorphism by A. Neeman and V. Retakh, which links $\mathrm{Ext}$-groups with fundamental groups of categories of extensions and relies on expressing the fundamental group of a (small) category by means of the associated Quillen groupoid. As a main result, we show that our construction behaves well with respect to structure preserving functors between exact monoidal categories…
We describe a general framework for prime, completely prime, semiprime, and primitive ideals of an abelian 2-category. This provides a noncommutative version of Balmer's prime spectrum of a tensor triangulated category. These notions are based on containment conditions in terms of thick subcategories of an abelian category and thick ideals of an abelian 2-category. We prove categorical analogs of the main properties of noncommutative prime spectra. Similar notions, starting with Serre subcategories of an abelian category and Serre ideals of an abelian 2-category, are developed. They are linked…
The construction of the cotensor coalgebra for an "abelian monoidal" category $\M$ which is also cocomplete, complete and AB5, was performed in [A. Ardizzoni, C. Menini and D. Ştefan, \emph{Cotensor Coalgebras in Monoidal Categories}, Comm. Algebra, to appear]. It was also proved that this coalgebra satisfies a meaningful universal property which resembles the classical one. Here the lack of the coradical filtration for a coalgebra $E$ in $\M$ is filled by considering a direct limit $\widetilde{D}$ of a filtration consisting of wedge products of a subcoalgebra $D$ of $E$. The main aim of this …
In this paper we show that to a unital associative algebra object (resp. co-unital co-associative co-algebra object) of any abelian monoidal category $\mathcal{C}$ endowed with a symmetric $2$-trace, one can attach a cyclic (resp. cocyclic) module, and therefore speak of the cyclic (co)homology of the (co)algebra "with coefficients in $F$". We observe that if $\mathcal{M}$ is a $\mathcal{C}$-bimodule category equipped with a stable central pair then $\mathcal{C}$ acquires a symmetric 2-trace. The dual notions of symmetric $2$-contratraces and stable central contrapairs are derived as well. As …
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.
We establish a connection between two settings of representation stability for the symmetric groups $S_n$ over $\mathbb{C}$. One is the symmetric monoidal category ${\rm Rep}(S_{\infty})$ of algebraic representations of the infinite symmetric group $S_{\infty} = \bigcup_n S_n$, related to the theory of ${\bf FI}$-modules. The other is the family of rigid symmetric monoidal Deligne categories $\underline{\rm Rep}(S_t)$, $t \in \mathbb{C}$, together with their abelian versions $\underline{\rm Rep}^{ab}(S_t)$, constructed by Comes and Ostrik. We show that for any $t \in \mathbb{C}$ the natural fu…
We investigate cofree coalgebras, and limits and colimits of coalgebras in some abelian monoidal categories of interest, such as bimodules over a ring, and modules and comodules over a bialgebra or Hopf algebra. We find concrete generators for the categories of coalgebras in these monoidal categories, and explicitly construct cofree coalgebras, products and limits of coalgebras in each case. This answers an open question of A. Agore on the existence of a cofree coring, and constructs the cofree (co)module coalgebra on a $B$-(co)module, for a bialgebra $B$.
