We give a definition of weak n-categories based on the theory of operads. We work with operads having an arbitrary set S of types, or ‘S-operads’, and given such an operad O, we denote its set of operations by elt(O). Then for any S-operad O there is an elt(O)-operad O + whose algebras are S-operads over O. Letting I be the initial operad with a one-element set of types, and defining I 0+ = I, I (i+1)+ = (I i+) +, we call the operations of I (n−1)+ the ‘n-dimensional opetopes’. Opetopes form a category, and presheaves on this category are called ‘opetopic sets’. A weak n-category is defined as an opetopic set with certain properties, in a manner reminiscent of Street’s simplicial approach to weak ω-categories. In a similar manner, starting from an arbitrary operad O instead of I, we define ‘n-coherent O-algebras’, which are n times categorified analogs of algebras of O. Examples include ‘monoidal n-categories’, ‘stable n-categories’, ‘virtual n-functors ’ and ‘representable n-prestacks’. We also describe how n-coherent O-algebra objects may be defined in any (n + 1)-coherent O-algebra. 1

‘Categorification ’ is the process of replacing equations by isomorphisms. We describe some of the ways a thoroughgoing emphasis on categorification can simplify and unify mathematics. We begin with elementary arithmetic, where the category of finite sets serves as a categorified version of the set of natural numbers, with disjoint union and Cartesian product playing the role of addition and multiplication. We sketch how categorifying the integers leads naturally to the infinite loop space Ω ∞ S ∞ , and how categorifying the positive rationals leads naturally to a notion of the ‘homotopy cardinality ’ of a tame space. Then we show how categorifying formal power series leads to Joyal’s espèces des structures, or ‘structure types’. We also describe a useful generalization of structure types called ‘stuff types’. There is an inner product of stuff types that makes the category of stuff types into a categorified version of the Hilbert space of the quantized harmonic oscillator. We conclude by sketching how this idea gives a nice explanation of the combinatorics of Feynman diagrams. 1

The theory of Lie algebras can be categorified starting from a new notion of ‘2-vector space’, which we define as an internal category in Vect. There is a 2-category 2Vect having these 2-vector spaces as objects, ‘linear functors’ as morphisms and ‘linear natural transformations ’ as 2-morphisms. We define a ‘semistrict Lie 2-algebra ’ to be a 2-vector space L equipped with a skew-symmetric bilinear functor [·, ·]: L × L → L satisfying the Jacobi identity up to a completely antisymmetric trilinear natural transformation called the ‘Jacobiator’, which in turn must satisfy a certain law of its own. This law is closely related to the Zamolodchikov tetrahedron equation, and indeed we prove that any semistrict Lie 2-algebra gives a solution of this equation, just as any Lie algebra gives a solution of the Yang–Baxter equation. We construct a 2-category of semistrict Lie 2-algebras and prove that it is 2-equivalent to the 2-category of 2-term L∞-algebras in the sense of Stasheff. We also study strict and skeletal Lie 2-algebras, obtaining the former from strict Lie 2-groups and using the latter to classify Lie 2-algebras in terms of 3rd cohomology classes in Lie algebra cohomology. This classification allows us to construct for any finite-dimensional Lie algebra g a canonical 1-parameter family of Lie 2-algebras g � which reduces to g at � = 0. These are closely related to the 2-groups G � constructed in a companion paper.

Just as knots and links can be algebraically described as certain morphisms in the category of tangles in 3 dimensions, compact surfaces smoothly embedded in R 4 can be described as certain 2-morphisms in the 2-category of ‘2-tangles in 4 dimensions’. Using the work of Carter, Rieger and Saito, we prove that this 2-category is the ‘free semistrict braided monoidal 2-category with duals on one unframed self-dual object’. By this universal property, any unframed self-dual object in a braided monoidal 2-category with duals determines an invariant of 2-tangles in 4 dimensions. 1

Given a braided tensor ∗-category C with conjugate (dual) objects and irreducible unit together with a full symmetric subcategory S we define a crossed product C ⋊ S. This construction yields a tensor ∗-category with conjugates and an irreducible unit. (A ∗-category is a category enriched over VectC with positive ∗-operation.) A Galois correspondence is established between intermediate categories sitting between C and C ⋊S and closed subgroups of the Galois group Gal(C⋊S/C) = AutC(C⋊S) of C, the latter being isomorphic to the compact group associated to S by the duality theorem of Doplicher and Roberts. Denoting by D ⊂ C the full subcategory of degenerate objects, i.e. objects which have trivial monodromy with all objects of C, the braiding of C extends to a braiding of C⋊S iff S ⊂ D. Under this condition C⋊S has no non-trivial degenerate objects iff S = D. If the original category C is rational (i.e. has only finitely many isomorphism classes of irreducible objects) then the same holds for the new one. The category C ≡ C ⋊ D is called the modular closure of C since in the rational case it is modular, i.e. gives rise to a unitary representation of the modular group SL(2, Z). (In passing we prove that every braided tensor ∗-category with conjugates automatically is a ribbon category, i.e. has a twist.) If all simple objects of S have dimension one the structure of the category C ⋊ S can be clarified quite explicitly in terms of group cohomology. 1

We generalize the notion of nuclear maps from functional analysis by defining nuclear ideals in tensored -categories. The motivation for this study came from attempts to generalize the structure of the category of relations to handle what might be called "probabilistic relations". The compact closed structure associated with the category of relations does not generalize directly, instead one obtains nuclear ideals. Most tensored -categories have a large class of morphisms which behave as if they were part of a compact closed category, i.e. they allow one to transfer variables between the domain and the codomain. We introduce the notion of nuclear ideals to analyze these classes of morphisms. In compact closed tensored -categories, all morphisms are nuclear, and in the tensored -category of Hilbert spaces, the nuclear morphisms are the Hilbert-Schmidt maps. We also introduce two new examples of tensored -categories, in which integration plays the role of composition. In the first, mor...

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In this paper we define a class of state-sum invariants of compact closed oriented piece-wise linear 4-manifolds using finite groups. The definition of these state-sums follows from the general abstract construction of 4-manifold invariants using spherical 2-categories, as we defined in [32], although it requires a slight generalization of that construction. We show that the state-sum invariants of Birmingham and Rakowski [11, 12, 13], who studied Dijkgraaf-Witten type invariants in dimension 4, are special examples of the general construction that we present in this paper. They showed that their invariants are nontrivial by some explicit computations, so our construction includes interesting examples already. Finally, we indicate how our construction is related to homotopy 3-types. This connection suggests that there are many more interesting examples of our construction to be found in the work on homotopy 3-types, such as [15], for example. 1 1

The algebraic characterization of tangles by Freyd, Turaev and Yetter has led to the discovery of new invariants for links. In this dissertation, we prove an analogous result one dimension higher: that the 2-category of unframed, unoriented 2-tangles is the free semistrict braided monoidal 2-category with duals on one unframed self dual object. We give appropriate definitions of the 2-category of 2-tangles, and of duality for monoidal and braided monoidal 2-categories. We use the movie moves of Carter, Rieger and Saito, to show that there is a 2-functor from this 2-category to any braided monoidal 2-category with duals containing an unframed self dual object. Knotted surfaces in 4-space are naturally included in this characterization, sinc...