nLab magmoidal category

Redirected from "magmoidal categories".
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Idea

Just as a monoidal category is the categorification of a monoid and a rig category is the categorification of a rig, a magmoidal category should be the categorification of a magma.

Definition

A magmoidal category or magmal category is a category CC with a functor

:C×CC\otimes: C \times C \to C

from the product category of CC with itself.

If there is a specified object II, and natural isomorphisms λ A::AIA\lambda_A:\colon A\otimes I\stackrel{\simeq}{\to} A and ρ A::IAA\rho_A:\colon I\otimes A\stackrel{\simeq}{\to} A satisfying ρ I=λ I:III\rho_I = \lambda_I\colon I\otimes I\stackrel{\simeq}{\to} I, then it is a magmoidal category with unit.

Note that this coherence condition appeared in Mac Lane‘s original definition of a monoidal category, but was proven to follow from the other coherence conditions for a monoidal category by Max Kelly. (The coherence condition usually placed on unitors in monoidal categories cannot even be stated in the context of a magmoidal category, since there is no associator to relate A(IB)A\otimes (I\otimes B) and (AI)B(A\otimes I)\otimes B.)

Examples

For example, monoidal categories such as braided monoidal categories, symmetric monoidal categories, cartesian monoidal categories, cocartesian monoidal categories, and rig categories are all magmoidal categories.

Every magma is a discrete magmoidal category.

An Ackermann groupoid is a particular sort of poset that is magmoidal (where ‘groupoid’ is here a synonym for ‘magma’).

References

The concept seems to first be named in:

  • Alexei Davydov, Nuclei of categories with tensor products, Theory and Applications of Categories, Vol. 18, 2007, No. 16, pp 440-472. tac:18-16

The terminology magmal category first appears in:

Last revised on February 4, 2024 at 12:30:25. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.