Related papers: The monoidal structure of strictification
In this survey paper we give account of several approaches to the strictification and non-strictification of monoidal categories, which are constructions that turn a monoidal category into a (non-)strict one monoidally equivalent to the…
Many structures of interest in two-dimensional category theory have aspects that are inherently strict. This strictness is not a limitation, but rather plays a fundamental role in the theory of such structures. For instance, a monoidal…
We present a method of constructing monoidal, braided monoidal, and symmetric monoidal bicategories from corresponding types of monoidal double categories that satisfy a lifting condition. Many important monoidal bicategories arise…
A double category is constructed from a `fattened' version of a given category, motivated in part by a context of parallel transport. We also study monoidal structures on the underlying category and on the fattened category.
This paper introduces the concept of distorted monoidal categories, a generalization of monoidal and braided monoidal categories that supports non-reversible and direction-sensitive tensor structures. Unlike the classical setting, where the…
We define bicategories internal to 2-categories. When the ambient 2-category is symmetric monoidal categories, this provides a convenient framework for encoding the structures of a symmetric monoidal 3-category. This framework is well…
We continue our study of semi-strict tricategories in which the only weakness is in vertical composition. We assemble the doubly-degenerate such tricategories into a 2-category, defining weak functors and transformations. We exhibit a…
We show that the obstruction to the existence of a strict symmetric monoidal structure on a monoidal stack $\cal C$ is determined by a commutator biextension associated to $\cal C$, and that this biextension is alternating under an…
This article is devoted to the investigation of the deformation (twisting) of monoidal structures, such as the associativity constraint of the monoidal category and the monoidal structure of monoidal functor. The sets of twistings have a…
The category of small 2-categories has two monoidal structures due to John Gray: one biclosed and one closed. We propose a formalisation of the construction of the right internal and internal homs of these monoidal structures.
We begin with a brief sketch of what is known and conjectured concerning braided monoidal 2-categories and their applications to 4d topological quantum field theories and 2-tangles (surfaces embedded in 4-dimensional space). Then we give…
We study monoidal 2-categories and bicategories in terms of categorical extensions and the cohomological data they determine in appropriate cohomology theories with coefficients in Picard groupoids. In particular, we analyze the hierarchy…
Let $\mathcal{B}$ be a subcategory of a given category $\mathcal{D}$. Let $\mathcal{B}$ has monoidal structure. In this article, we discuss when can one extend the monoidal structure of $\mathcal{B}$ to $\mathcal{D}$ such that $\mathcal{B}$…
In this paper we describe a general framework for constructing examples of locally linear semistrict monoidal 2-categories covering many examples appearing in link homology theory. The main input datum is a closed foam evaluation formula.…
We present a method of constructing symmetric monoidal bicategories from symmetric monoidal double categories that satisfy a lifting condition. Such symmetric monoidal double categories frequently occur in nature, so the method is widely…
We show that the categories of directed and undirected reflexive graphs carry exactly two (up to isomorphism) biclosed monoidal structures.
We study semi-strict tricategories in which the only weakness is in vertical composition. We construct these as categories enriched in the category of bicategories with strict functors, with respect to the cartesian monoidal structure. As…
Let $\mathcal{S}$ be a small category, and suppose that we are given a full subcategory $\mathcal{U}$ such that every object of $\mathcal{S}$ can be embedded into some object of $\mathcal{U}$ in the same way as every quasi-projective…
Categorical structures and their pseudomaps rarely form locally presentable 2-categories in the sense of Cat-enriched category theory. However, we show that if the categorical structure in question is sufficiently weak (such as the…
We provide an explicit and elementary construction of the Morita $(\infty,2)$-category of a monoidal category which satisfies minimal conditions. We construct it as a $3$-coskeletal $2$-complicial set, in which the vertices encode the…