We review the complete definition of monoidal 2-categories and recover Kapranov and Voevodsky's definition from the algebraic definition of weak 3-category(or tricategory).
Frobenius monoidal functors preserve duals. We show that conversely, (co)monoidal functors between autonomous categories which preserve duals are Frobenius monoidal. We apply this result to linearly distributive functors between autonomous categories.
We introduce semidirect products of skew monoidal categories as a categorification of semidirect products of monoids (or, perhaps more familiarly, of groups). We also discuss how this construction interacts with monoidal, autonomous and closed monoidal structures. We end by producing some examples of monoidal categories which are left closed but not right closed.
We discuss generalised duality theory for monoidal categories and its applications to the categories of exact endofunctors, graded vector spaces, and topological vector spaces.
We study the action of monads on categories equipped with several monoidal structures. We identify the structure and conditions that guarantee that the higher monoidal structure is inherited by the category of algebras over the monad. Monoidal monads and comonoidal monads appear as the base cases in this hierarchy. Monads acting on duoidal categories constitute the next case. We cover the general case of $n$-monoidal categories and discuss several naturally occurring examples in which $n\leq 3$.
We describe a perfect correspondence between skew monoidal categories and certain generalised multicategories, called skew multicategories, that arise in nature.
We present Trimble's definition of a tetracategory and prove that the spans in (strict) 2-categories with certain limits have the structure of a monoidal tricategory, defined as a one-object tetracategory. We recall some notions of limits in 2-categories for use in the construction of the monoidal tricategory of spans.
Many monoidal-type objects are known to be classified by maps from the Catalan simplicial set $\mathbb{C}$ to various nerves of categories and higher categories. There are, for example, three different nerves of the 2-category of categories $\mathsf{Cat}$ with the property that maps from $\mathbb{C}$ into them are in one to one correspondence with strict monoidal, monoidal, and skew monoidal categories. In this last case, the classification result can be understood as justifying the definition of skew monoidal categories intrinsically in terms of the structure of $\mathbb{C}$. In this paper, w…
We prove that a category which is symmetric (relaxed) monoidal closed, (small) complete, well-powered and has a small cogenerating family, is cocomplete.
This article shows that the units of a skew monoidal category are unique up to a unique isomorphism, and internalises this fact to skew monoidales. Some benefits of certain extra structure on the unit maps are also discussed before the axioms of a skew monoidal category are shown to be independent.
We show that the word problem for braided monoidal categories is at least as hard as the unknotting problem. As a corollary, so is the word problem for Gray categories. We conjecture that the word problem for Gray categories is decidable.
We denote the monoidal bicategory of two-sided modules (also called profunctors, bimodules and distributors) between categories by $\mathrm{Mod}$; the tensor product is cartesian product of categories. For a groupoid $\scr{G}$, we study the monoidal centre $\mathrm{ZPs}(\scr{G},\mathrm{Mod}^{\mathrm{op}})$ of the monoidal bicategory $\mathrm{Ps}(\scr{G},\mathrm{Mod}^{\mathrm{op}})$ of pseudofunctors and pseudonatural transformations; the tensor product is pointwise. Alexei Davydov defined the full centre of a monoid in a monoidal category. We define a higher dimensional version: the full monoi…
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.
The purpose of this expository note is to describe duality and trace in a symmetric monoidal category, along with important properties (including naturality and functoriality), and to give as many examples as possible. Among other things, this note is intended as background for the generalizations to the context of bicategories and indexed monoidal categories.
We define a traced pseudomonoid as a pseudomonoid in a monoidal bicategory equipped with extra structure, giving a new characterisation of Cauchy complete traced monoidal categories as algebraic structures in Prof, the monoidal bicategory of profunctors. This enables reasoning about the trace using the graphical calculus for monoidal bicategories, which we illustrate in detail. We apply our techniques to study traced ∗-autonomous categories, proving a new equivalence result between the left ⊗-trace and the right ⅋-trace, and describing a new condition under which traced ͨ…
We discuss a categorical version of the celebrated belief propagation algorithm. This provides a way to prove that some algorithms which are known or suspected to be analogous, are actually identical when formulated generically. It also highlights the computational point of view in monoidal categories.
We lift the standard equivalence between fibrations and indexed categories to an equivalence between monoidal fibrations and monoidal indexed categories, namely weak monoidal pseudofunctors to the 2-category of categories. In doing so, we investigate the relation between this `global' monoidal structure where the total category is monoidal and the fibration strictly preserves the structure, and a `fibrewise' one where the fibres are monoidal and the reindexing functors strongly preserve the structure, first hinted by Shulman. In particular, when the domain is cocartesian monoidal, lax monoidal…
We define the Drinfeld center of a monoidal category enriched over a braided monoidal category, and show that every modular tensor category can be realized in a canonical way as the Drinfeld center of a self-enriched monoidal category. We also give a generalization of this result for important applications in physics.
Thomason's Homotopy Colimit Theorem has been extended to bicategories and this extension can be adapted, through the delooping principle, to a corresponding theorem for diagrams of monoidal categories. In this version, we show that the homotopy type of the diagram can be also represented by a genuine simplicial set nerve associated with it. This suggests the study of a homotopy colimit theorem, for diagrams $\b$ of braided monoidal categories, by means of a simplicial set {\em nerve of the diagram}. We prove that it is weak homotopy equivalent to the homotopy colimit of the diagram, of simplic…
This paper determines what structure is needed for internal homs in a monoidal category C to be liftable to the category C^G of Eilenberg-Moore coalgebras for a monoidal comonad G on C. We apply this to lift star-autonomy with the view to recasting the definition of quantum groupoid.
We introduce DisCoPy, an open source toolbox for computing with monoidal categories. The library provides an intuitive syntax for defining string diagrams and monoidal functors. Its modularity allows the efficient implementation of computational experiments in the various applications of category theory where diagrams have become a lingua franca. As an example, we used DisCoPy to perform natural language processing on quantum hardware for the first time.
Every small monoidal category with universal finite joins of central idempotents is monoidally equivalent to the category of global sections of a sheaf of local monoidal categories on a topological space. Every small stiff monoidal category monoidally embeds into such a category of global sections. An infinitary version of these theorems also holds in the spatial case. These representation results are functorial and subsume the Lambek-Moerdijk-Awodey sheaf representation for toposes, the Stone representation of Boolean algebras, and the Takahashi representation of Hilbert modules as continuous…
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.
We study cocompleteness, co-wellpoweredness and generators in the centralizer category of an object or morphism in a monoidal category, and the center or the weak center of a monoidal category. We explicitly give some answers for when colimits, cocompleteness, co-wellpoweredness and generators in these monoidal categories can be inherited from their base monidal categories. Most importantly, we investigate cofree objects of comonoids in these monoidal categories.
In these notes we develop some basic theory of idempotents in monoidal categories. We introduce and study the notion of a pair of complementary idempotents in a triangulated monoidal category, as well as more general idempotent decompositions of identity. If $\mathbf{E}$ is a categorical idempotent then $\operatorname{End}(\mathbf{E})$ is a graded commutative algebra. The same is true of $\operatorname{Hom}(\mathbf{E},\mathbf{E}^c[1])$ under certain circumstances, where $\mathbf{E}^c$ is the complement. These generalize the notions of cohomology and Tate cohomology of a finite dimensional Hopf…
The category of double categories and double functors is equipped with a symmetric closed monoidal structure. For any double category $\mathbb A$, the corresponding internal hom functor $|[ \mathbb A,-]|$ sends a double category $\mathbb B$ to the double category whose 0-cells are the double functors $\mathbb A \to \mathbb B$, whose horizontal and vertical 1-cells are the horizontal and vertical pseudotransformations, respectively, and whose 2-cells are the modifications. Some well-known functors of practical significance are checked to be compatible with this monoidal structure.
The existence of adjoints to algebraic functors between categories of models of Lawvere theories follows from finite-product-preservingness surviving left Kan extension. A result along these lines was proved in Appendix 2 of Brian Day's 1970 PhD thesis. His context was categories enriched in a cartesian closed base. A generalization is described here with essentially the same proof. We introduce the notion of cartesian monoidal category in the enriched context. With an advanced viewpoint, we give a result about left extension along a promonoidal module and further related results.
We present a method of constructing symmetric monoidal bicategories from symmetric monoidal double categories that satisfy a lifting condition. Such symmetric monoidal double categories frequently occur in nature, so the method is widely applicable, though not universally so.
Tannaka Duality describes the relationship between algebraic objects in a given category and their representations; an important case is that of Hopf algebras and their categories of representations; these have strong monoidal forgetful "fibre functors" to the category of vector spaces. We simultaneously generalize the theory of Tannaka duality in two ways: first, we replace Hopf algebras with weak Hopf algebras and strong monoidal functors with separable Frobenius monoidal functors; second, we replace the category of vector spaces with an arbitrary braided monoidal category. To accomplish thi…
We introduce the notion of a braiding on a skew monoidal category, whose curious feature is that the defining isomorphisms involve three objects rather than two. These braidings are shown to arise from, and classify, cobraidings (also known as coquasitriangular structures) on bialgebras. Using a multicategorical approach we also describe examples of braidings on skew monoidal categories arising from 2-category theory.
The centre of a monoidal category is a braided monoidal category. Monoidal categories are monoidal objects (or pseudomonoids) in the monoidal bicategory of categories. This paper provides a universal construction in a braided monoidal bicategory that produces a braided monoidal object from any monoidal object. Some properties and sufficient conditions for existence of the construction are examined.
We prove the theorem stated in the title. More precisely, we show the stronger statement that every symmetric monoidal left adjoint functor between presentably symmetric monoidal infinity-categories is represented by a strong symmetric monoidal left Quillen functor between simplicial, combinatorial and left proper symmetric monoidal model categories.
This is a report on aspects of the theory and use of monoidal categories. The first section introduces the main concepts through the example of the category of vector spaces. String notation is explained and shown to lead naturally to a link between knot theory and monoidal categories. The second section reviews the light thrown on aspects of representation theory by the machinery of monoidal category theory, such as braidings and convolution. The category theory of Mackey functors is reviewed in the third section. Some recent material and a conjecture concerning monoidal centres is included. …
In this paper, we state and prove precise theorems on the classification of the category of (braided) categorical groups and their (braided) monoidal functors, and some applications obtained from the basic studies on monoidal functors between categorical groups.
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 …
Liftable pairs of adjoint functors between braided monoidal categories in the sense of \cite{GV-OnTheDuality} provide auto-adjunctions between the associated categories of bialgebras. Motivated by finding interesting examples of such pairs, we study general pre-rigid monoidal categories. Roughly speaking, these are monoidal categories in which for every object $X$, an object $X^{\ast}$ and a nicely behaving evaluation map from $X^{\ast}\otimes X$ to the unit object exist. A prototypical example is the category of vector spaces over a field, where $X^{\ast}$ is not a categorical dual if $X$ is …
The basic data for a skew-monoidal category are the same as for a monoidal category, except that the constraint morphisms are no longer required to be invertible. The constraints are given a specific orientation and satisfy Mac Lane's five axioms. Whilst recent applications justify the use of skew-monoidal structure, they do not give an intrinsic justification for the form the structure takes (the orientation of the constraints and the axioms that they satisfy). This paper provides a perspective on skew-monoidal structure which, amongst other things, makes it quite apparent why this particular…
Given a horizontal monoid M in a duoidal category F, we examine the relationship between bimonoid structures on M and monoidal structures on the category of right M-modules which lift the vertical monoidal structure of F. We obtain our result using a variant of the Tannaka adjunction. The approach taken utilizes hom-enriched categories rather than categories on which a monoidal category acts ("actegories"). The requirement of enrichment in F itself demands the existence of some internal homs, leading to the consideration of convolution for duoidal categories. Proving that certain hom-functors …
By the Lefschetz fixed point theorem, if an endomorphism of a topological space is fixed-point-free, then its Lefschetz number vanishes. This necessary condition is not usually sufficient, however; for that we need a refinement of the Lefschetz number called the Reidemeister trace. Abstractly, the Lefschetz number is a trace in a symmetric monoidal category, while the Reidemeister trace is a trace in a bicategory; in this paper we relate these contexts using indexed symmetric monoidal categories. In particular, we will show that for any symmetric monoidal category with an associated indexed sy…
We offer two proofs that categories weakly enriched over symmetric monoidal categories can be strictified to categories enriched in permutative categories. This is a "many 0-cells" version of the strictification of bimonoidal categories to strict ones.
In this paper we introduce a notion of $\mathbf{O}$-monoidal $\infty$-categories for a finite sequence $\mathbf{O}^{\otimes}$ of $\infty$-operads, which is a generalization of the notion of higher monoidal categories in the setting of $\infty$-categories. We show that the $\infty$-category of coCartesian $\mathbf{O}$-monoidal $\infty$-categories and right adjoint lax $\mathbf{O}$-monoidal functors is equivalent to the opposite of the $\infty$-category of Cartesian $\mathbf{O}_{\rm rev}$-monoidal $\infty$-categories and left adjoint oplax $\mathbf{O}_{\rm rev}$-monoidal functors, where $\mathbf…
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…
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…
We prove that the homotopy theory of parsummable categories (as defined by Schwede) with respect to the underlying equivalences of categories is equivalent to the usual homotopy theory of symmetric monoidal categories. In particular, this yields a model of symmetric monoidal categories in terms of categories equipped with a strictly commutative, associative, and unital (but only partially defined) operation.
The main objective of this paper is to construct a symmetric monoidal closed model category of coherently commutative monoidal quasi-categories. We construct another model category structure whose fibrant objects are (essentially) those coCartesian fibrations which represent objects that are known as symmetric monoidal quasi-categories in the literature. We go on to establish a Quillen equivalence between the two model categories.