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Related papers: Monoidal 2-categories from foam evaluation

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We compare closed and rigid monoidal categories. Closedness is defined by the tensor product having a right adjoint: the internal hom functor. Rigidity, on the other hand, generalises the duality of finite-dimensional vector spaces. In the…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2026-02-06 Sebastian Halbig , Tony Zorman

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…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2019-11-26 Linde Wester Hansen , Michael Shulman

We provide a finite dimensional categorification of the symmetric evaluation of $\mathfrak{sl}_N$-webs using foam technology. As an output we obtain a symmetric link homology theory categorifying the link invariant associated to symmetric…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2019-09-06 Louis-Hadrien Robert , Emmanuel Wagner

We use foams to give a topological construction of a rational link homology categorifying the slN link invariant, for N>3. To evaluate closed foams we use the Kapustin-Li formula adapted to foams by Khovanov and Rozansky. We show that for…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2014-11-11 Marco Mackaay , Marko Stosic , Pedro Vaz

We show how the notion of intercategory encompasses a wide variety of three-dimensional structures from the literature, notably duoidal categories, monoidal double categories, cubical bicategories, double bicategories and Gray categories.…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2016-07-12 Robert Paré , Marco Grandis

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…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2024-12-31 Jorge Becerra

We give an alternate conception of string diagrams as labeled 1-dimensional oriented cobordisms, the operad of which we denote by Cob/O, where O is the set of string labels. The axioms of traced (symmetric monoidal) categories are fully…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2018-06-06 David I. Spivak , Patrick Schultz , Dylan Rupel

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…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2025-11-25 Joaquim Reizi Higuchi

Just as links may be algebraically described as certain morphisms in the category of tangles, compact surfaces smoothly embedded in R^4 may be described as certain 2-morphisms in the 2-category of `2-tangles in 4 dimensions'. In this…

q-alg · Mathematics 2008-02-03 John C. Baez , Laurel Langford

We construct an explicit equivalence between the (bi)category of gl(2) webs and foams and the Bar-Natan (bi)category of Temperley-Lieb diagrams and cobordisms. With this equivalence we can fix functoriality of every link homology theory…

Algebraic Topology · Mathematics 2023-06-14 Anna Beliakova , Matthew Hogancamp , Krzysztof Karol Putyra , Stephan Martin Wehrli

We combinatorially describe the $2$-category of singular cobordisms, called (rank one) foams, which governs the functorial version of Khovanov homology. As an application we topologically realize the type $\mathrm{D}$ arc algebra using this…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2019-11-05 Michael Ehrig , Daniel Tubbenhauer , Arik Wilbert

We classify (multi)fusion 2-categories in terms of braided fusion categories and group cohomological data. This classification is homotopy coherent -- we provide an equivalence between the 3-groupoid of (multi)fusion 2-categories up to…

The category $\mathbf{Rel}$ is the category of sets (objects) and relations (morphisms). Equipped with the direct product of sets, $\mathbf{Rel}$ is a monoidal category. Moreover, $\mathbf{Rel}$ is a locally posetal 2-category, since every…

Rings and Algebras · Mathematics 2017-11-27 Anna Jenčová , Gejza Jenča

In this paper, the 2-category $\mathfrak{Rep}_{{\bf 2Mat}_{\mathbb{C}}}(\mathbb{G})$ of (weak) representations of an arbitrary (weak) 2-group $\mathbb{G}$ on (some version of) Kapranov and Voevodsky's 2-category of (complex) 2-vector spaces…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2013-08-13 Josep Elgueta

We show that Khovanov homology (and its sl(3) variant) can be understood in the context of higher representation theory. Specifically, we show that the combinatorially defined foam constructions of these theories arise as a family of…

Quantum Algebra · Mathematics 2015-12-01 Aaron D. Lauda , Hoel Queffelec , David E. V. Rose

This paper is devoted to the study of algebraic structures leading to link homology theories. The originally used structures of Frobenius algebra and/or TQFT are modified in two directions. First, we refine 2-dimensional cobordisms by…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2009-10-28 Anna Beliakova , Emmanuel Wagner

Extending previous work, we define monoidal algebraic model structures and give examples. The main structural component is what we call an algebraic Quillen two-variable adjunction; the principal technical work is to develop the category…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2013-02-01 Emily Riehl

This paper introduces an inherently strict presentation of categories with products, coproducts, or symmetric monoidal products that is inspired by file systems and directories. Rather than using nested binary tuples to combine objects or…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2025-04-30 Owen Lynch , Markus Lohmayer

Frobenius extensions play a central role in the link homology theories based upon the sl(n) link variants, and each of these Frobenius extensions may be recast geometrically via a category of marked cobordisms in the manner of Bar-Natan.…

Geometric Topology · Mathematics 2010-09-17 Jeffrey Boerner , Paul Drube

We construct a category equivalent to the category $\mathbf{Mon}$ of monoids and monoid homomorphisms, based on categories with strict factorization systems. This equivalence is then extended to the category $\mathbf{Mon_s}$ of unital…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2025-10-31 Xavier Mary