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Symmetric monoidal categories (SMCs) are a common framework for reasoning about computation, focusing on the parallel and sequential compositionality of operations. String diagrams are a ubiquitous and powerful tool for reasoning about…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2026-05-26 Benjamin Caldwell , William Spencer , Aleks Kissinger , Robert Rand

Let $\mathcal{S}$ be a small category, and suppose that we are given two (non-full) subcategories $\mathcal{S}^{sm}$ and $\mathcal{S}^{cl}$ that generate all morphisms of $\mathcal{S}$ under composition in the same way as morphisms of…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2024-12-12 Luca Terenzi

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

Let $\mathcal C$ be a category with finite colimits, and let $(\mathcal E,\mathcal M)$ be a factorisation system on $\mathcal C$ with $\mathcal M$ stable under pushouts. Writing $\mathcal C;\mathcal M^{\mathrm{op}}$ for the symmetric…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2017-03-30 Brendan Fong

One goal of applied category theory is to understand open systems. We compare two ways of describing open systems as cospans equipped with extra data. First, given a functor $L \colon \mathsf{A} \to \mathsf{X}$, a "structured cospan" is a…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2024-08-07 John C. Baez , Kenny Courser , Christina Vasilakopoulou

Optimizing the design of complex systems requires navigating interdependent decisions, heterogeneous components, and multiple objectives. Our monotone theory of co-design offers a compositional framework for addressing this challenge,…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2025-08-13 Yujun Huang , Marius Furter , Gioele Zardini

One goal of applied category theory is to better understand networks appearing throughout science and engineering. Here we introduce "structured cospans" as a way to study networks with inputs and outputs. Given a functor $L \colon…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2020-11-11 John C. Baez , Kenny Courser

Categorical probability has recently seen significant advances through the formalism of Markov categories, within which several classical theorems have been proven in entirely abstract categorical terms. Closely related to Markov categories…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2023-04-11 Tobias Fritz , Wendong Liang

Model predictive control (MPC) is an optimal control technique which involves solving a sequence of constrained optimization problems across a given time horizon. In this paper, we introduce a category theoretic framework for constructing…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-03-12 Tyler Hanks , Baike She , Matthew Hale , Evan Patterson , Matthew Klawonn , James Fairbanks

We present an unbiased theory of symmetric multicategories, where sequences are replaced by families. To be effective, this approach requires an explicit consideration of indexing and reindexing of objects and arrows, handled by the double…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2024-09-17 Claudio Pisani

Skew monoidal categories are monoidal categories with non-invertible `coherence' morphisms. As shown in a previous paper bialgebroids over a ring R can be characterized as the closed skew monoidal structures on the category Mod R in which…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2016-08-30 K. Szlachanyi

We introduce monoidal width as a measure of complexity for morphisms in monoidal categories. Inspired by well-known structural width measures for graphs, like tree width and rank width, monoidal width is based on a notion of syntactic…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2024-02-14 Elena Di Lavore , Paweł Sobociński

Category theory is a branch of mathematics that provides a formal framework for understanding the relationship between mathematical structures. To this end, a category not only incorporates the data of the desired objects, but also…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2024-07-26 Niels van der Weide , Nima Rasekh , Benedikt Ahrens , Paige Randall North

A symmetric monoidal category naturally arises as the mathematical structure that organizes physical systems, processes, and composition thereof, both sequentially and in parallel. This structure admits a purely graphical calculus. This…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2015-05-30 Bob Coecke , Raymond Lal

The basic data for a skew-monoidal category are the same as for a monoidal category, except that the constraint morphisms are no longer required to be invertible. The constraints are given a specific orientation and satisfy Mac Lane's five…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2013-07-02 Mitchell Buckley , Richard Garner , Stephen Lack , Ross Street

This is an overview of double categories of "open systems": systems that can interact with their environment. We focus on the variable sharing paradigm, where we compose open systems by identifying variables. This paradigm is often…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2025-09-29 John C. Baez

String diagrams can nicely express numerous computations in symmetric strict monoidal categories (SSMC). To be entirely exact, this is only true for props: the SSMCs whose monoid of objects are free. In this paper, we show a propification…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2022-05-17 Titouan Carette

Recently, there has been renewed interest in the theory and applications of de Paiva's dialectica categories and their relationship to the category of polynomial functors. Both fall under the theory of generalized polynomial categories,…

Category Theory · Mathematics 2023-12-15 Joseph Dorta , Samantha Jarvis , Nelson Niu

We consider the problem of symmetrising a neural network along a group homomorphism: given a homomorphism $\varphi : H \to G$, we would like a procedure that converts $H$-equivariant neural networks to $G$-equivariant ones. We formulate…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2025-01-10 Rob Cornish

It is well-known that combinatorial circuits are modeled mathematically by string diagrams in a monoidal category. Given a gate set $\Sigma$, the circuits over $\Sigma$ can be thought of as string diagrams in the free monoidal category…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2025-01-23 Scott Wesley