In various subjects including mathematics, one can hope to use mathematical thinking well when the right kinds of algebraic structure to consider can be discovered or spotted. Therefore, it would help to understand kinds of algebraic structure in some great generality. In tradition, certain general kinds of algebraic structure are studied through the theory of operads, of algebraic theories, of properads (possibly with "colours" or "sorts") or of the like. We understand this as use of algebra for studying a certain meta aspect of the subject of algebra, namely, studying kinds of algebraic structure in general (rather than structures of specific kinds themselves).
In higher categorical contexts, more various algebraic structures can be considered (starting in fact with operads considered with arbitrarily varying colours) than can be covered with mere higher categorified versions of the traditional tools. In this survey, we develop a systematic view on quite general algebraic structures with high categorical dimensionality. We do this by extending algebra for the meta aspect of algebra, to a higher order, or highly meta, theory of algebra, where the theoretic order turns out to match the categorical dimension. We will discuss some examples including a natural generalization of the notion of topological field theory (TFT) obtained in the resulting new system. It turns out a generalized TFT can have a very different characterization from a conventional TFT does.
In this paper, we introduce a notion of categorified cyclic operad for set-based cyclic operads with symmetries. Our categorification is obtained by relaxing defining axioms of cyclic operads to isomorphisms and by formulating coherence conditions for these isomorphisms. The coherence theorem that we prove has the form "all diagrams of canonical isomorphisms commute". Our coherence results come in two flavours, corresponding to the "entries-only" and "exchangeable-output" definitions of cyclic operads. Our proof of coherence in the entries-only style is of syntactic nature and relies on the co…
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.
We provide the expected constructions of weakly $ω$-categorified models (in the sense of Bressie) of the theory of groups and quandles which arise by replacing the homotopies used to give equivalence relations in the theory of fundamental groups, fundamental quandles, and knot quandles with homotopies of all orders used as arrows of categorical dimensions one and greater, and discuss other related constructions of weakly $ω$-categorifed algebras.
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…
This dissertation comprises three collections of results, all united by a common theme. The theme is the study of categories via algebraic techniques, considering categories themselves as algebraic objects. This algebraic approach to category theory is central to noncommutative algebraic geometry, as realized by recent advances in the study of noncommutative motives. We have success proving algebraic results in the general setting of symmetric monoidal and semiring $\infty$-categories, which categorify abelian groups and rings, respectively. For example, we prove that modules over the semiring…
We propose a categorification of the Chern character that refines earlier work of Toën and Vezzosi and of Ganter and Kapranov. If X is an algebraic stack, our categorified Chern character is a symmetric monoidal functor from a category of mixed noncommutative motives over X, which we introduce, to S1-equivariant perfect complexes on the derived free loop stack LX. As an application of the theory, we show that Toën and Vezzosi's secondary Chern character factors through secondary K-theory. Our techniques depend on a careful investigation of the functoriality of traces in symmetric monoidal (inf…
Quantum field theory allows more general symmetries than groups and Lie algebras. For instance quantum groups, that is Hopf algebras, have been familiar to theoretical physicists for a while now. Nowdays many examples of symmetries of categorical flavor -- categorical groups, groupoids, Lie algebroids and their higher analogues -- appear in physically motivated constructions and faciliate constructions of geometrically sound models and quantization of field theories. Here we consider two flavours of categorified symmetries: one coming from noncommutative algebraic geometry where varieties them…
Lie's Third Theorem, asserting that each finite-dimensional Lie algebra is the Lie algebra of a Lie group, fails in infinite dimensions. The modern account on this phenomenon is the integration problem for central extensions of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras, which in turn is phrased in terms of an integration procedure for Lie algebra cocycles. This paper remedies the obstructions for integrating cocycles and central extensions from Lie algebras to Lie groups by generalising the integrating objects. Those objects obey the maximal coherence that one can expect. Moreover, we show that they a…
Higher structures - infinity algebras and other objects up to homotopy, categorified algebras, `oidified' concepts, operads, higher categories, higher Lie theory, higher gauge theory... - are currently intensively investigated in Mathematics and Physics. The present thesis deals with abstractions and flexibilizations of algebraic structures, and more precisely, with algebraic operads, homotopification and categorification.
The "linear dual" of a cocomplete linear category $\mathcal C$ is the category of all cocontinuous linear functors $\mathcal C \to \mathrm{Vect}$. We study the questions of when a cocomplete linear category is reflexive (equivalent to its double dual) or dualizable (the pairing with its dual comes with a corresponding copairing). Our main results are that the category of comodules for a countable-dimensional coassociative coalgebra is always reflexive, but (without any dimension hypothesis) dualizable if and only if it has enough projectives, which rarely happens. Along the way, we prove that …
In this paper we construct "structural" pre-braidings characterizing different algebraic structures: a rack, an associative algebra, a Leibniz algebra and their representations. Some of these pre-braidings seem original. On the other hand, we propose a general homology theory for pre-braided vector spaces and braided modules, based on the quantum co-shuffle comultiplication. Applied to the structural pre-braidings above, it gives a generalization and a unification of many known homology theories. All the constructions are categorified, resulting in particular in their super- and co-versions. L…
It has long been argued that higher categories provide the proper algebraic structure underlying state sum invariants of 4-manifolds. This idea has been refined recently, by proposing to use 2-groups and their representations as specific examples of 2-categories. The challenge has been to make these proposals fully explicit. Here we give a concrete realization of this program. Building upon our earlier work with Baez and Wise on the representation theory of 2-groups, we construct a four-dimensional state sum model based on a categorified version of the Euclidean group. We define and explicitly…
Convergent rewriting systems on algebraic structures give methods to solve decision problems, to prove coherence results, and to compute homological invariants. These methods are based on higher-dimensional extensions of the critical branching lemma that proves local confluence from confluence of the critical branchings. The analysis of local confluence of rewriting systems on algebraic structures, such as groups or linear algebras, is complicated because of the underlying algebraic axioms. This article introduces the structure of algebraic polygraph modulo that formalizes the interaction betw…
General coherence theorems are constructed that yield explicit presentations of categorical and algebraic objects. The categorical structures involved are finitary discrete Lawvere 2-theories, though they are approached within the language of term rewriting theory. Two general coherence theorems are obtained. The first applies to terminating and confluent rewriting 2-theories. This result is exploited to construct systematic presentations for the higher Thompson groups and the Higman-Thompson groups. The presentations are categorically interesting as they arise from higher-arity analogues of t…
It is well known since Stasheff's work that 1-fold loop spaces can be described in terms of the existence of higher homotopies for associativity (coherence conditions) or equivalently as algebras of contractible non-symmetric operads. The combinatorics of these higher homotopies is well understood and is extremely useful. For $n \ge 2$ the theory of symmetric operads encapsulated the corresponding higher homotopies, yet hid the combinatorics and it has remain a mystery for almost 40 years. However, the recent developments in many fields ranging from algebraic topology and algebraic geometry to…
We give a general technique for constructing a functorial choice of very good paths objects, which can be used to implement identity types in models of type theories in direct manner with little reliance on general coherence results. We give a simple proof that applies in algebraic model structures that possess a notion of structured weak equivalence, in a sense that we define here. We then give a more direct proof that applies both to the original BCH cubical set model and more recent variants. We give an explanation how this construction relates to the one used in the CCHM cubical set model …
We categorify the theory of Lie algebras beginning with a new notion of categorified vector space, or `2-vector space', which we define as an internal category in Vect, the category of vector spaces. We then define a `semistrict Lie 2-algebra' to be a 2-vector space equipped with a skew-symmetric bilinear functor satisfying the Jacobi identity up to a completely antisymmetric trilinear natural transformation called the `Jacobiator', which in turn must satisfy a certain law of its own. Much of the content of this first chapter has already appeared in a separate paper coauthored with John Baez, …
Rewriting methods have been developed for the study of coherence for algebraic objects. This consists in starting with a convergent presentation, and expliciting a family of generating confluences to obtain a coherent presentation -- one with generators, generating relations, and generating relations between relations (syzygies). In this article we develop these ideas for a class of monoids which encode the representation theory of complex symmetrizable Kac-Moody algebras, called plactic monoids. The main tools for this are the crystal realization of plactic monoids due to Kashiwara, and a cla…
The notion of (symmetric) coloured operad or "multicategory" can be obtained from the notion of commutative algebra through a certain general process which we call "theorization" (where our term comes from an analogy with William Lawvere's notion of algebraic theory). By exploiting the inductivity in the structure of higher associativity, we obtain the notion of "$n$-theory" for every integer $n\ge 0$, which inductively "theorizes" $n$ times, the notion of commutative algebra. As a result, (coloured) morphism between $n$-theories is a "graded" and "enriched" generalization of ($n-1$)-theory. T…
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…
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 …
This is the first paper in a series on new higher categorical structures called higher Segal spaces. For every d > 0, we introduce the notion of a d-Segal space which is a simplicial space satisfying locality conditions related to triangulations of cyclic polytopes of dimension d. In the case d=1, we recover Rezk's theory of Segal spaces. The present paper focuses on 2-Segal spaces. The starting point of the theory is the observation that Hall algebras, as previously studied, are only the shadow of a much richer structure governed by a system of higher coherences captured in the datum of a 2-S…
Locally cartesian closed (lcc) categories are natural categorical models of extensional dependent type theory. This paper introduces the "gros" semantics in the category of lcc categories: Instead of constructing an interpretation in a given individual lcc category, we show that also the category of all lcc categories can be endowed with the structure of a model of dependent type theory. The original interpretation in an individual lcc category can then be recovered by slicing. As in the original interpretation, we face the issue of coherence: Categorical structure is usually preserved by func…
