A general notion of operad is given, which includes as instances, the operads originally conceived to study loop spaces, as well as the higher operads that arise in the globular approach to higher dimensional algebra. In the framework of this paper, one can also describe symmetric and braided analogues of higher operads, likely to be important to the study of weakly symmetric, higher dimensional monoidal structures.
I describe a generalization of the notion of operadic category due to Batanin and Markl. For each such operadic category I describe a skew monoidal category of collections, such that a monoid in this skew monoidal category is precisely an operad over the operadic category. In fact I describe two skew monoidal categories with this property. The first has the feature that the operadic category can be recovered from the skew monoidal category of collections; the second has the feature that the right unit constraint is invertible. In the case of the operadic category S of finite sets and functions…
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.
Operads were originally defined as V-operads, that is, enriched in a symmetric or braided monoidal category V. The symmetry or braiding in V is required in order to describe the associativity axiom the operads must obey, as well as the associativity that must be a property of the action of an operad on any of its algebras. After a review of the role of operads in loop space theory and higher categories we go over definitions of iterated monoidal categories and introduce a large family of simple examples. Then we generalize the definition of operad by defining n-fold operads and their algebras …
We extend the W-construction of Boardman and Vogt to operads of an arbitrary monoidal model category with suitable interval, and show that it provides a cofibrant resolution for well-pointed sigma-cofibrant operads. The standard simplicial resolution of Godement as well as the cobar-bar chain resolution are shown to be particular instances of this generalised W-construction.
We decribe the correspondence between normalised $ω$-operads and certain lax monoidal structures on the category of globular sets. As with ordinary monoidal categories, one has a notion of category enriched in a lax monoidal category. Within the aforementioned correspondence, we provide also an equivalence between the algebras of a given normalised $ω$-operad, and categories enriched in globular sets for the induced lax monoidal structure.
We prove that for a topological operad $P$ the operad of oriented cubical chains, $C^{ord}_\ast(P)$, and the operad of singular chains, $S_\ast(P)$, are weakly equivalent. As a consequence, $C^{ord}_\ast(P;\mathbb{Q})$ is formal if and only if $S_\ast(P;\mathbb{Q})$ is formal, thus linking together some formality results spread in the literature. The proof is based on an acyclic models theorem for monoidal functors. We give different variants of the acyclic models theorem and apply the contravariant case to study the cohomology theories for simplicial sets defined by $R$-simplicial differentia…
Over suitable monoidal model categories, we construct a Dwyer-Kan model category structure on the category of algebras over an augmented operadic collection. As examples we obtain Dwyer-Kan model category structure on the categories of enriched wheeled props, wheeled properads, and wheeled operads, among others. This result extends known model category structure on the categories of operads, properads, and props enriched in simplicial sets and other monoidal model categories. We also show that our Dwyer-Kan model category structure is well behaved with respect to simultaneous changes of the un…
This paper is a companion for the paper "Monoidal Bousfield Localizations and Algebras over Operads," part of the author's PhD thesis. This paper was written in 2015 for the first edition of "Enchiridion: Mathematics User's Guides." More User's Guides can be found at https://mathusersguides.com/
We construct for every $\infty$-operad $\mathcal{O}^\otimes$ with certain finite limits new $\infty$-operads of spectrum objects and of commutative group objects in $\mathcal{O}$. We show that these are the universal stable resp. additive $\infty$-operads obtained from $\mathcal{O}^\otimes$. We deduce that for a stably (resp. additively) symmetric monoidal $\infty$-category $\mathcal{C}$ the Yoneda embedding factors through the $\infty$-category of exact, contravariant functors from $\mathcal{C}$ to the $\infty$-category of spectra (resp. connective spectra) and admits a certain multiplicative…
This monograph provides a coherent development of operads, infinity operads, and monoidal categories, equipped with equivariant structures encoded by an action operad. A group operad is a planar operad with an action operad equivariant structure. In the first three parts of this monograph, we establish a foundation for group operads and for their higher coherent analogues called infinity group operads. Examples include planar, symmetric, braided, ribbon, and cactus operads, and their infinity analogues. For example, with the tools developed here, we observe that the coherent ribbon nerve of th…
Generalized operads, also called generalized multicategories and $T$-monoids, are defined as monads within a Kleisli bicategory. With or without emphasizing their monoidal nature, generalized operads have been considered by numerous authors in different contexts, with examples including symmetric multicategories, topological spaces, globular operads and Lawvere theories. In this paper we study functoriality of the Kleisli construction, and correspondingly that of generalized operads. Motivated by this problem we develop a lax version of the formal theory of monads, and study its connection to …
In this paper we develop the theory of operads, algebras and modules in cofibrantly generated symmetric monoidal model categories. We give J-semi model strucures, which are a slightly weaker version of model structures, for operads and algebras and model structures for modules. In a second part we develop the thoery of S-modules of [EKMM]., which allows a general homotopy theory for commutative algebras and pseudo unital symmetric monoidal categories of modules over them. Finally we prove a base change and projection formula.
We endow categories of non-symmetric operads with natural model structures. We work with no restriction on our operads and only assume the usual hypotheses for model categories with a symmetric monoidal structure. We also study categories of algebras over these operads in enriched non-symmetric monoidal model categories.
Let V be a cofibrantly generated monoidal model category and let M be a monoidal V-model category. Given a cofibrant C-coloured operad P in V, we give sufficient conditions for the fibrant replacement and cofibrant replacement functors in M^C to preserve P-algebra structures. In particular, we show how P-algebra structures can be transferred along derived Quillen adjunctions of monoidal V-model categories, and we apply this result to the Quillen adjunctions defined by enriched Bousfield localizations and colocalizations on M. As an application, we prove that in the category of symmetric spectr…
The notion of 2--monoidal category used here was introduced by B.~Vallette in 2007 for applications in the operadic context. The starting point for this article was a remark by Yu. Manin that in the category of quadratic algebras (that is, "quantum linear spaces") one can also define 2--monoidal structure(s) with rather unusual properties. Here we give a detailed exposition of these constructions, together with their generalisations to the case of quadratic operads. Their parallel exposition was motivated by the following remark. Several important operads/cooperads such as genus zero quantum c…
We develop a notion of iterated monoidal category and show that this notion corresponds in a precise way to the notion of iterated loop space. Specifically the group completion of the nerve of such a category is an iterated loop space and free iterated monoidal categories give rise to finite simplicial operads of the same homotopy type as the classical little cubes operads used to parametrize the higher H-space structure of iterated loop spaces. Iterated monoidal categories encompass, as a special case, the notion of braided tensor categories, as used in the theory of quantum groups.
We develop the rudiments of a theory of parametrized $\infty$-operads, including parametrized generalizations of monoidal envelopes, Day convolution, operadic left Kan extensions, results on limits and colimits of algebras, and the symmetric monoidal Yoneda embedding.
The goal of the paper is to establish and to investigate a fully faithful embedding of the category of group operads into that of crossed interval groups. For this, we introduce a monoidal structure on the slice of the category of operads over the operad of symmetric groups. Comparing with the monoidal structure on the category of interval sets discussed in the author's previous work, we obtain a monoidal functor connecting these two categories. It will be shown that this actually induces a fully faithful functor on monoid objects and does not change the underlying sets, so we obtain a require…
We prove a stabilization theorem for algebras of n-operads in a monoidal model category. It implies a version of Baez-Dolan stabilization hypothesis for Rezk's weak n-categories and some other stabilization results.
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…
We show that the homotopy colimit construction for diagrams of categories with an operad action, recently introduced by Fiedorowicz, Stelzer and Vogt, has the desired homotopy type for diagrams of weak braided monoidal categories. This provides a more flexible way to realize E-2 spaces categorically.
Usually a name of the category is inherited from the name of objects. However more relevant for a category of objects and morphisms is an algebra of morphisms. Therefore we prefer to say a category of graphs if every morphism is a graph. In a monoidal category every morphism can be seen as a graph, and a partial algebra of morphisms possesses a structure of an operad, operad of graphs. We consider a monoidal category of operad of graphs with underlying graphical calculus. If, in particular, there is a single generating objects, then each morphism is a bi-arity graph. The graphical calculus, mu…
We present a definition of homotopy algebra for an operad, and explore its consequences. The paper should be accessible to topologists, category theorists, and anyone acquainted with operads. After a review of operads and monoidal categories, the definition of homotopy algebra is given. Specifically, suppose that M is a monoidal category in which it makes sense to talk about algebras for some operad P. Then our definition says what a homotopy P-algebra in M is, provided only that some of the morphisms in M have been marked out as `homotopy equivalences'. The bulk of the paper consists of examp…
We introduce the dendroidal analogs of the notions of complete Segal space and of Segal category, and construct two appropriate model categories for which each of these notions corresponds to the property of being fibrant. We prove that these two model categories are Quillen equivalent to each other, and to the monoidal model category for infinity-operads which we constructed in an earlier paper. By slicing over the monoidal unit objects in these model categories, we derive as immediate corollaries the known comparison results between Joyal's quasi-categories, Rezk's complete Segal spaces, and…
We give a definition of an operad with general groups of equivariance suitable for use in any symmetric monoidal category with appropriate colimits. We then apply this notion to study the 2-category of algebras over an operad in Cat. We show that any operad is finitary, that an operad is cartesian if and only if the group actions are nearly free (in a precise fashion), and that the existence of a pseudo-commutative structure largely depends on the groups of equivariance. We conclude by showing that the operad for strict braided monoidal categories has two canonical pseudo-commutative structure…
We consider the endomorphism operad of a functor, which is roughly the object of natural transformations from (monoidal) powers of that functor to itself. There are many examples from geometry, topology, and algebra where this object has already been implicitly studied. We ask whether the endomorphism operad of the forgetful functor from algebras over an operad to the ground category recovers that operad. The answer is positive for operads in vector spaces over an infinite field, but negative both in vector spaces over finite fields and in sets. Several examples are computed.
Operads may be represented as symmetric monoidal functors on a small symmetric monoidal category. We discuss the axioms which must be imposed on a symmetric monoidal functor in order that it give rise to a theory similar to the theory of operads: we call such functors patterns. We also develop the enriched version of the theory, and show how it may be applied to axiomatize topological field theory.
Let M be a bicomplete, closed symmetric monoidal category. Let P be an operad in M, i.e., a monoid in the category of symmetric sequences of objects in M, with its composition monoidal structure. Let R be a P-co-ring, i.e., a comonoid in the category of P-bimodules. The co-ring R induces a natural ``fattening'' of the category of P-(co)algebras, expanding the morphism sets while leaving the objects fixed. Co-rings over operads are thus ``relative operads,'' parametrizing morphisms as operads parametrize (co)algebras. Let A denote the associative operad in the category of chain complexes. We de…
The category of (colored) props is an enhancement of the category of colored operads, and thus of the category of small categories. The titular category has nice formal properties: it is bicomplete and is a symmetric monoidal category, with monoidal product closely related to the Boardman-Vogt tensor product of operads. Tools developed in this article, which is the first part of a larger work, include a generalized version of multilinearity of functors, a free prop construction defined on certain "generalized graphs", and the relationship between the category of props and the categories of per…
One of the open problems in higher category theory is the systematic construction of the higher dimensional analogues of the Gray tensor product of 2-categories. In this paper we continue the developments of [3] and [2] by understanding the natural generalisations of Gray's little brother, the funny tensor product of categories. In fact we exhibit for any higher categorical structure definable by an n-operad in the sense of Batanin [1], an analogous tensor product which forms a symmetric monoidal closed structure on the category of algebras of the operad.
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.
Building on structure observed in equivariant homotopy theory, we define an equivariant generalization of a symmetric monoidal category: a $G$-symmetric monoidal category. These record not only the symmetric monoidal products but also symmetric monoidal powers indexed by arbitrary finite $G$-sets. We then define $G$-commutative monoids to be the natural extension of ordinary commutative monoids to this new context. Using this machinery, we then describe when Bousfield localization in equivariant spectra preserves certain operadic algebra structures, and we explore the consequences of our defin…
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…
We establish a highly flexible condition that guarantees that all colored symmetric operads in a symmetric monoidal model category are admissible, i.e., the category of algebras over any operad admits a model structure transferred from the original model category. We also give a necessary and sufficient criterion that ensures that a given weak equivalence of admissible operads admits rectification, i.e., the corresponding Quillen adjunction between the categories of algebras is a Quillen equivalence. In addition, we show that Quillen equivalences of underlying symmetric monoidal model categori…
We introduce simple models for associative algebras and bimodules in the context of non-symmetric $\infty$-operads, and use these to construct an $(\infty,2)$-category of associative algebras, bimodules, and bimodule homomorphisms in a monoidal $\infty$-category. By working with $\infty$-operads over $Δ^{n,\text{op}}$ we iterate these definitions and generalize our construction to get an $(\infty,n+1)$-category of $E_{n}$-algebras and iterated bimodules in an $E_{n}$-monoidal $\infty$-category. Moreover, we show that if $\mathcal{C}$ is an $E_{n+k}$-monoidal $\infty$-category then the $(\infty…
In this thesis, we present a flexible framework for specifying and constructing operads which are suited to reasoning about network construction. The data used to present these operads is called a \emph{network model}, a monoidal variant of Joyal's combinatorial species. The construction of the operad required that we develop a monoidal lift of the Grothendieck construction. We then demonstrate how concepts like priority and dependency can be represented in this framework. For the former, we generalize Green's graph products of groups to the context of universal algebra. For the latter, we exa…
We prove, under mild assumptions, that a Quillen equivalence between symmetric monoidal model categories gives rise to a Quillen equivalence between their model categories of (non-symmetric) operads, and also between model categories of algebras over operads. We also show left properness results on model categories of operads and algebras over operads. As an application, we prove homotopy invariance for (unital) associative operads.
I show that the theories of enrichment in a monoidal infinity-category defined by Hinich and by Gepner-Haugseng agree, and that the identification is unique. Among other things, this makes the Yoneda lemma available in the former model.
It is well known that the existence of a braiding in a monoidal category V allows many structures to be built upon that foundation. These include a monoidal 2-category V-Cat of enriched categories and functors over V, a monoidal bicategory V-Mod of enriched categories and modules, a category of operads in V and a 2-fold monoidal category structure on V. We will begin by focusing our exposition on the first and last in this list due to their ability to shed light on a new question. We ask, given a braiding on V, what non-equal structures of a given kind in the list exist which are based upon th…
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 …
We give sufficient conditions for homotopical localization functors to preserve algebras over coloured operads in monoidal model categories. Our approach encompasses a number of previous results about preservation of structures under localizations, such as loop spaces or infinite loop spaces, and provides new results of the same kind. For instance, under suitable assumptions, homotopical localizations preserve ring spectra (in the strict sense, not only up to homotopy), modules over ring spectra, and algebras over commutative ring spectra, as well as ring maps, module maps, and algebra maps. I…
Networks can be combined in various ways, such as overlaying one on top of another or setting two side by side. We introduce "network models" to encode these ways of combining networks. Different network models describe different kinds of networks. We show that each network model gives rise to an operad, whose operations are ways of assembling a network of the given kind from smaller parts. Such operads, and their algebras, can serve as tools for designing networks. Technically, a network model is a lax symmetric monoidal functor from the free symmetric monoidal category on some set to $\mathb…
