Related papers: A common misinterpretation of Isbell's obstruction…
This paper studies questions of coherence and strictification related to self-similarity - the identity $S\cong S\otimes S$ in a (semi-)monoidal category. Based on Saavedra's theory of units, we first demonstrate that strict self-similarity…
Given a category with a bifunctor and natural isomorphisms for associativity, commutativity and left and right identity we do not assume that extra constraining diagrams hold. We introduce groupoids of coupling trees to describe a version…
It is shown that all the assumptions for symmetric monoidal categories flow out of a unifying principle involving natural isomorphisms of the type ${(A\otimes B)\otimes(C\otimes D)\to(A\otimes C)\otimes(B\otimes D)}$, called medial…
An equivalent description of a symmetric monoidal category is introduced in which, instead of separate associator and commutator isomorphisms satisfying the usual coherence axioms, we simply have associo-commutator isomorphisms satisfying…
A premonoidal category is equipped only with a bifunctor and a natural isomorphism for associativity. We introduce a (deformation) natural automorphism representing the deviation from the Pentagon condition. We uncover a binary tree…
We define the affinization of an arbitrary monoidal category $\mathcal{C}$, corresponding to the category of $\mathcal{C}$-diagrams on the cylinder. We also give an alternative characterization in terms of adjoining dot generators to…
Presentations of categories are a well-known algebraic tool to provide descriptions of categories by means of generators, for objects and morphisms, and relations on morphisms. We generalize here this notion, in order to consider situations…
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…
A compact closed bicategory is a symmetric monoidal bicategory where every object is equipped with a weak dual. The unit and counit satisfy the usual "zig-zag" identities of a compact closed category only up to natural isomorphism, and the…
It is common to encounter symmetric monoidal categories $\mathcal{C}$ for which every object is equipped with an algebraic structure, in a way that is compatible with the monoidal product and unit in $\mathcal{C}$. We define this formally…
Given an algebraic theory which can be described by a (possibly symmetric) operad $P$, we propose a definition of the \emph{weakening} (or \emph{categorification}) of the theory, in which equations that hold strictly for $P$-algebras hold…
We give a 3-categorical, purely formal argument explaining why on the category of Kleisli algebras for a lax monoidal monad, and dually on the category of Eilenberg-Moore algebras for an oplax monoidal monad, we always have a natural…
An object $P$ in a monoidal category $\mathcal{C}$ is called pivotal if its left dual and right dual objects are isomorphic. Given such an object and a choice of dual $Q$, we construct the category $\mathcal{C}(P,Q)$, of objects which…
In the first part of this paper, we propose a uniform interpretation of characteristic classes as obstructions to the reduction of the structure group and to the existence of an equivariant extension of a certain homomorphism defined a…
A symmetric monoidal category is a category equipped with an associative and commutative (binary) product and an object which is the unit for the product. In fact, those properties only hold up to natural isomorphisms which satisfy some…
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…
We develop a general theory of (extended) inner autoequivalences of objects of any 2-category, generalizing the theory of isotropy groups to the 2-categorical setting. We show how dense subcategories let one compute isotropy in the presence…
We study actions of monoidal categories on objects in a suitably enriched $2$-category, and applications in stable homotopy theory. Given a monoidal category $\mathcal{I}$ and an $\mathcal{I}$-object $\mathcal{A}$, the (co)stabilization of…
The usual coherence theorem of MacLane for categories with multiplication assumes that a certain pentagonal diagram commutes in order to conclude that associativity isomorphisms are well defined in a certain practical sense. The practical…
Coherence in a monoidal category asserts that all morphisms built from structural isomorphisms with a fixed source and target coincide. These structural isomorphisms include, in particular, the associators. Linearly distributive categories…