Monoidal category

"internal product" redirects here. It is not to be confused with inner product.

In mathematics, a monoidal category (or tensor category) is a category C equipped with a bifunctor

 : C × C C

which is associative up to a natural isomorphism, and an object I which is both a left and right identity for ⊗, again up to a natural isomorphism. The associated natural isomorphisms are subject to certain coherence conditions which ensure that all the relevant diagrams commute. In a monoidal category, analogs of usual monoids from abstract algebra can be defined using the same commutative diagrams. In fact, usual monoids are exactly the monoid objects in the monoidal category of sets with Cartesian product.

The ordinary tensor product makes vector spaces, abelian groups, R-modules, or R-algebras into monoidal categories. Monoidal categories can be seen as a generalization of these and other examples.

In category theory, monoidal categories can be used to define the concept of a monoid object and an associated action on the objects of the category. They are also used in the definition of an enriched category.

Monoidal categories have numerous applications outside of category theory proper. They are used to define models for the multiplicative fragment of intuitionistic linear logic. They also form the mathematical foundation for the topological order in condensed matter. Braided monoidal categories have applications in quantum information, quantum field theory, and string theory.

Formal definition

A monoidal category is a category \mathbf C equipped with

The coherence conditions for these natural transformations are:

commutes;
commutes;

It follows from these three conditions that a large class of such diagrams (i.e. diagrams whose morphisms are built using \alpha, \lambda, \rho, identities and tensor product) commute: this is Mac Lane's "coherence theorem". It is sometimes inaccurately stated that all such diagrams commute.

A strict monoidal category is one for which the natural isomorphisms α, λ and ρ are identities. Every monoidal category is monoidally equivalent to a strict monoidal category.

Examples

Free strict monoidal category

For every category C, the free strict monoidal category Σ(C) can be constructed as follows:

This operation Σ mapping category C to Σ(C) can be extended to a strict 2-monad on Cat.

See also

References

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