English

A bialgebraic characterization of symmetric powers in $\mathbb{Q}_{\ge 0}$-linear symmetric monoidal categories

Category Theory 2025-11-26 v3 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

In any symmetric monoidal category, the nn-th (co)equalizer symmetric power of an object AA is the (co)equalizer of all the permutations from AnA^{\otimes n} to itself. If the symmetric monoidal category is Q0\mathbb{Q}_{\ge 0}-linear, that is, enriched over Q0\mathbb{Q}_{\ge 0}-modules, the notions of nn-th equalizer symmetric power and nn-th coequalizer symmetric power are equivalent. In this context, the nn-th symmetric power of AA can be described as the intermediate object AnA_n in a splitting of the idempotent 1n!σSnσ ⁣:AnAn\frac{1}{n!}\underset{\sigma \in S_n}{\sum}\sigma\colon A^{\otimes n} \rightarrow A^{\otimes n}. We define a permutation splitting as a countable family of such splittings. The main goal of this paper is to prove two theorems. The first theorem exhibits in any Q0\mathbb{Q}_{\ge 0}-linear symmetric monoidal category a bijection between operations making a graded object (An)n0(A_n)_{n \ge 0} into a permutation splitting and operations making this graded object into a bialgebraic structure that we call a binomial bimonoid. Binomial bimonoids can be defined in any additive symmetric monoidal category. The second theorem shows that, in any Q0\mathbb{Q}_{\ge 0}-linear symmetric monoidal category, the biassociativity and bicommutativity axioms may be omitted from the definition of a binomial bimonoid. We then show that being a binomial bimonoid in a Q0\mathbb{Q}_{\ge 0}-linear symmetric monoidal category is a property: two binomial bimonoids are isomorphic whenever their underlying graded objects are isomorphic. This result does not extend to arbitrary additive symmetric monoidal categories since both the one-variable polynomial algebra and the one-variable divided power polynomial algebra over a field kk of positive characteristic are non-isomorphic binomial kk-bialgebras with isomorphic underlying N\mathbb{N}-graded vector spaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.02094,
  title  = {A bialgebraic characterization of symmetric powers in $\mathbb{Q}_{\ge 0}$-linear symmetric monoidal categories},
  author = {Jean-Baptiste Vienney},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.02094},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

60 pages. Minor corrections