English

Additive closed symmetric monoidal structures on R-modules

Category Theory 2009-06-08 v1 Rings and Algebras

Abstract

In this paper, we classify additive closed symmetric monoidal structures on the category of left R-modules by using Watts' theorem. An additive closed symmetric monoidal structure is equivalent to an R-module Lambda_{A,B} equipped with two commuting right R-module structures represented by the symbols A and B, an R-module K to serve as the unit, and certain isomorphisms. We use this result to look at simple cases. We find rings R for which there are no additive closed symmetric monoidal structures on R-modules, for which there is exactly one (up to isomorphism), for which there are exactly seven, and for which there are a proper class of isomorphism classes of such structures. We also prove some general structual results; for example, we prove that the unit K must always be a finitely generated R-module.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0906.1125,
  title  = {Additive closed symmetric monoidal structures on R-modules},
  author = {Mark Hovey},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0906.1125},
  year   = {2009}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:10:04.700Z