English

Invertibility and parity in symmetric monoidal categories

Category Theory 2026-04-17 v1 Algebraic Topology

Abstract

We introduce a notion of parity for formal morphisms between invertible objects and use it to prove a corresponding coherence theorem. Parity is conceptually similar to the sign of underlying permutations, but not defined as such. To give complete details, this work includes a thorough treatment of the free permutative category on an invertible generator, its skeletal model, known as the super integers, and an equivalence between them classified by the pair of integers ±\pm1. Our approach is organized and clarified as an application of 2-monadic algebra, particularly the concept of flexibility and the Lack model structure. The final section contains a number of examples applying the main results.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.15142,
  title  = {Invertibility and parity in symmetric monoidal categories},
  author = {Nick Gurski and Niles Johnson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.15142},
  year   = {2026}
}

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46 pages