Categorical trace

Last updated

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, the categorical trace is a generalization of the trace of a matrix.

Contents

Definition

The trace is defined in the context of a symmetric monoidal category C, i.e., a category equipped with a suitable notion of a product . (The notation reflects that the product is, in many cases, a kind of a tensor product.) An object X in such a category C is called dualizable if there is another object playing the role of a dual object of X. In this situation, the trace of a morphism is defined as the composition of the following morphisms: where 1 is the monoidal unit and the extremal morphisms are the coevaluation and evaluation, which are part of the definition of dualizable objects. [1]

The same definition applies, to great effect, also when C is a symmetric monoidal ∞-category.

Examples

which is the multiplication by the trace of the endomorphism f in the usual sense of linear algebra.
[2]

Further applications

Kondyrev & Prikhodko (2018) have used categorical trace methods to prove an algebro-geometric version of the Atiyah–Bott fixed point formula, an extension of the Lefschetz fixed point formula.

Related Research Articles

The snake lemma is a tool used in mathematics, particularly homological algebra, to construct long exact sequences. The snake lemma is valid in every abelian category and is a crucial tool in homological algebra and its applications, for instance in algebraic topology. Homomorphisms constructed with its help are generally called connecting homomorphisms.

Homological algebra Branch of mathematics

Homological algebra is the branch of mathematics that studies homology in a general algebraic setting. It is a relatively young discipline, whose origins can be traced to investigations in combinatorial topology and abstract algebra at the end of the 19th century, chiefly by Henri Poincaré and David Hilbert.

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, an enriched category generalizes the idea of a category by replacing hom-sets with objects from a general monoidal category. It is motivated by the observation that, in many practical applications, the hom-set often has additional structure that should be respected, e.g., that of being a vector space of morphisms, or a topological space of morphisms. In an enriched category, the set of morphisms associated with every pair of objects is replaced by an object in some fixed monoidal category of "hom-objects". In order to emulate the (associative) composition of morphisms in an ordinary category, the hom-category must have a means of composing hom-objects in an associative manner: that is, there must be a binary operation on objects giving us at least the structure of a monoidal category, though in some contexts the operation may also need to be commutative and perhaps also to have a right adjoint.

In mathematics, a monoidal category is a category equipped with a bifunctor

In linear algebra and functional analysis, the partial trace is a generalization of the trace. Whereas the trace is a scalar valued function on operators, the partial trace is an operator-valued function. The partial trace has applications in quantum information and decoherence which is relevant for quantum measurement and thereby to the decoherent approaches to interpretations of quantum mechanics, including consistent histories and the relative state interpretation.

In mathematics, especially in category theory, a closed monoidal category is a category that is both a monoidal category and a closed category in such a way that the structures are compatible.

In mathematics, specifically in category theory, an exponential object or map object is the categorical generalization of a function space in set theory. Categories with all finite products and exponential objects are called cartesian closed categories. Categories without adjoined products may still have an exponential law.

This is a glossary of properties and concepts in category theory in mathematics.

In mathematics, a nuclear operator is a compact operator for which a trace may be defined, such that the trace is finite and independent of the choice of basis . Nuclear operators are essentially the same as trace-class operators, though most authors reserve the term "trace-class operator" for the special case of nuclear operators on Hilbert spaces.

In mathematics, specifically in category theory, hom-sets, i.e. sets of morphisms between objects, give rise to important functors to the category of sets. These functors are called hom-functors and have numerous applications in category theory and other branches of mathematics.

In mathematics, the Atiyah–Bott fixed-point theorem, proven by Michael Atiyah and Raoul Bott in the 1960s, is a general form of the Lefschetz fixed-point theorem for smooth manifolds M, which uses an elliptic complex on M. This is a system of elliptic differential operators on vector bundles, generalizing the de Rham complex constructed from smooth differential forms which appears in the original Lefschetz fixed-point theorem.

In category theory, monoidal functors are functors between monoidal categories which preserve the monoidal structure. More specifically, a monoidal functor between two monoidal categories consists of a functor between the categories, along with two coherence maps—a natural transformation and a morphism that preserve monoidal multiplication and unit, respectively. Mathematicians require these coherence maps to satisfy additional properties depending on how strictly they want to preserve the monoidal structure; each of these properties gives rise to a slightly different definition of monoidal functors

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, compact closed categories are a general context for treating dual objects. The idea of a dual object generalizes the more familiar concept of the dual of a finite-dimensional vector space. So, the motivating example of a compact closed category is FdVect, the category having finite-dimensional vector spaces as objects and linear maps as morphisms, with tensor product as the monoidal structure. Another example is Rel, the category having sets as objects and relations as morphisms, with Cartesian monoidal structure.

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, a dual object is an analogue of a dual vector space from linear algebra for objects in arbitrary monoidal categories. It is only a partial generalization, based upon the categorical properties of duality for finite-dimensional vector spaces. An object admitting a dual is called a dualizable object. In this formalism, infinite-dimensional vector spaces are not dualizable, since the dual vector space V doesn't satisfy the axioms. Often, an object is dualizable only when it satisfies some finiteness or compactness property.

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, dagger compact categories first appeared in 1989 in the work of Sergio Doplicher and John E. Roberts on the reconstruction of compact topological groups from their category of finite-dimensional continuous unitary representations. They also appeared in the work of John Baez and James Dolan as an instance of semistrict k-tuply monoidal n-categories, which describe general topological quantum field theories, for n = 1 and k = 3. They are a fundamental structure in Samson Abramsky and Bob Coecke's categorical quantum mechanics.

In the mathematical field of category theory, a dagger symmetric monoidal category is a monoidal category that also possesses a dagger structure. That is, this category comes equipped not only with a tensor product in the category theoretic sense but also with a dagger structure, which is used to describe unitary morphisms and self-adjoint morphisms in : abstract analogues of those found in FdHilb, the category of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. This type of category was introduced by Peter Selinger as an intermediate structure between dagger categories and the dagger compact categories that are used in categorical quantum mechanics, an area that now also considers dagger symmetric monoidal categories when dealing with infinite-dimensional quantum mechanical concepts.

Traced monoidal category

In category theory, a traced monoidal category is a category with some extra structure which gives a reasonable notion of feedback.

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, the center is a variant of the notion of the center of a monoid, group, or ring to a category.

In category theory, a branch of mathematics, a rigid category is a monoidal category where every object is rigid, that is, has a dual X* and a morphism 1XX* satisfying natural conditions. The category is called right rigid or left rigid according to whether it has right duals or left duals. They were first defined by Neantro Saavedra Rivano in his thesis on Tannakian categories.

In mathematics, compact objects, also referred to as finitely presented objects, or objects of finite presentation, are objects in a category satisfying a certain finiteness condition.

References

  1. Ponto & Shulman (2014 , Def. 2.2)
  2. Ponto & Shulman (2014 , Ex. 3.3)