Abstract. In this paper we extend categorically the notion of a finite nilpotent group to fusion categories. To this end, we first analyze the trivial component of the universal grading of a fusion category C, and then introduce the upper central series ofC. For fusion categories with commutative Grothendieck rings (e.g., braided fusion categories) we also introduce the lower central series. We study arithmetic and structural properties of nilpotent fusion categories, and apply our theory to modular categories and to semisimple Hopf algebras. In particular, we show that in the modular case the two central series are centralizers of each other in the sense of M. Müger. Dedicated to Leonid Vainerman on the occasion of his 60-th birthday 1. introduction The theory of fusion categories arises in many areas of mathematics such as representation theory, quantum groups, operator algebras and topology. The representation categories of semisimple (quasi-) Hopf algebras are important examples of fusion categories. Fusion categories have been studied extensively in the literature,

To Izrail Moiseevich Gelfand on his 95th birthday with admiration

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Category theoretic aspects of non-rational conformal field theories are discussed. We consider the case that the category C of chiral sectors is a finite tensor category, i.e. a rigid monoidal category whose class of objects has certain finiteness properties. Besides the simple objects, the indecomposable projective objects of C are of particular interest. The fusion rules of C can be block-diagonalized. A conjectural connection between the block-diagonalization and modular transformations of characters of modules over vertex algebras is exemplified with the case of the (1,p) minimal models.

We characterize a natural class of modular categories of prime power Frobenius-Perron dimension as representation categories of twisted doubles of finite p-groups. We also show that a nilpotent braided fusion category C admits an analogue of the Sylow decomposition. If the simple objects ofC have integral Frobenius-Perron dimensions then C is group-theoretical in the sense of [ENO]. As a consequence, we obtain that semisimple quasi-Hopf algebras of prime power dimension are group-theoretical. Our arguments are based on a reconstruction of twisted group doubles from Lagrangian subcategories of modular categories (this is reminiscent to the characterization of doubles of quasi-Lie bialgebras in terms of Manin pairs given in [Dr]).

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We apply the yoga of classical homotopy theory to classification problems of G-extensions of fusion and braided fusion categories, where G is a finite group. Namely, we reduce such problems to classification (up to homotopy) of maps from BG to classifiying spaces of certain higher groupoids. In particular, to every fusion category C we attach the 3-groupoid BrPic(C) of invertible C-bimodule categories, called the Brauer-Picard groupoid of C, such that equivalence classes of G-extensions of C are in bijection with homotopy classes of maps from BG to the classifying space of BrPic(C). This gives rise to an explicit description of both the obstructions to existence of extensions and the data parametrizing them; we work these out both topologically and algebraically. One of the central results of the paper is that the 2-truncation of BrPic(C) is canonically the 2-groupoid of braided autoequivalences of the Drinfeld center Z(C) of C. In particular, this implies that the

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We introduce a finiteness property for braided fusion categories, describe a conjecture that would characterize categories possessing this, and verify the conjecture in a number of important cases. In particular we say a category has property F if the associated braid group representations factor over a finite group, and suggest that categories of integral Frobenius-Perron dimension are precisely those with property F.

The analogue of the charge-conjugation modular invariant for rational logarithmic conformal field theories is constructed. This is done by reconstructing the bulk spectrum from a simple boundary condition (the analogue of the Cardy ‘identity brane’). We apply the general method to the c1,p triplet models and reproduce the previously known bulk theory for p = 2 at c = −2. For general p we verify that the resulting partition functions are modular invariant. We also construct the complete set of 2p boundary states, and confirm that the identity brane from which we started indeed exists. As a by-product we obtain a logarithmic version of the Verlinde formula for the c1,p triplet models.