English

Virtually indecomposable tensor categories

Quantum Algebra 2011-02-08 v2 Category Theory Rings and Algebras

Abstract

Let k be any field. J-P. Serre proved that the spectrum of the Grothendieck ring of the k-representation category of a group is connected, and that the same holds in characteristic zero for the representation category of a Lie algebra over k. We say that a tensor category C over k is virtually indecomposable if its Grothendieck ring contains no nontrivial central idempotents. We prove that the following tensor categories are virtually indecomposable: Tensor categories with the Chevalley property; representation categories of affine group schemes; representation categories of formal groups; representation categories of affine supergroup schemes (in characteristic \ne 2); representation categories of formal supergroups (in characteristic \ne 2); symmetric tensor categories of exponential growth in characteristic zero. In particular, we obtain an alternative proof to Serre's Theorem, deduce that the representation category of any Lie algebra over k is virtually indecomposable also in positive characteristic (this answers a question of Serre), and (using a theorem of Deligne in the super case, and a theorem of Deligne-Milne in the even case) deduce that any (super)Tannakian category is virtually indecomposable (this answers another question of Serre).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1101.3054,
  title  = {Virtually indecomposable tensor categories},
  author = {Shlomo Gelaki},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1101.3054},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

13 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T17:12:42.778Z