For a copy with the hand-drawn figures please email

We begin with a brief sketch of what is known and conjectured concerning braided monoidal 2-categories and their relevance to 4d TQFTs and 2-tangles. Then we give concise definitions of semistrict monoidal 2-categories and braided monoidal 2-categories, and show how these may be unpacked to give long explicit definitions similar to, but not quite the same as, those given by Kapranov and Voevodsky. Finally, we describe how to construct a semistrict braided monoidal 2-category Z(C) as the `center' of a semistrict monoidal category C, in a manner analogous to the construction of a braided monoidal category as the center of a monoidal category. As a corollary this yields a strictification theorem for braided monoidal 2-categories. 1 Introduction This is the first of a series of articles developing the program introduced in the paper `Higher-Dimensional Algebra and Topological Quantum Field Theory' [1], henceforth referred to as `HDA'. This program consists of generalizing algebraic concep...

In this dissertation we investigate presheaf models for concurrent computation. Our aim is to provide a systematic treatment of bisimulation for a wide range of concurrent process calculi. Bisimilarity is defined abstractly in terms of open maps as in the work of Joyal, Nielsen and Winskel. Their work inspired this thesis by suggesting that presheaf categories could provide abstract models for concurrency with a built-in notion of bisimulation. We show how

We consider certain categorical structures that are implicit in subfactor theory. Making the connection between subfactor theory (at finite index) and category theory explicit sheds light on both subjects. Furthermore, it allows various generalizations of these structures, e.g. to arbitrary ground fields, and the proof of new results about topological invariants in three dimensions. The central notion is that of a Frobenius algebra in a tensor category A, which reduces to the classical notion if A = F-Vect, where F is a field. An object X ∈ A with two-sided dual X gives rise to a Frobenius algebra in A, and under weak additional conditions we prove a converse: There exists a bicategory E with ObjE = {A, B} such that EndE(A) ⊗ ≃ A and such that there are J, J: B ⇋ A producing the given Frobenius algebra. Many properties (additivity, sphericity, semisimplicity,...) of A carry over to the bicategory E. We define weak monoidal Morita equivalence of tensor categories, denoted A ≈ B, and establish a correspondence between Frobenius algebras in A and tensor categories B ≈ A. While considerably weaker than equivalence of tensor categories, weak monoidal Morita equivalence A ≈ B has remarkable consequences: A and B have equivalent (as braided tensor categories) quantum doubles (‘centers’) and (if A, B are semisimple spherical or ∗-categories) have equal dimensions and give rise the same state sum invariant of closed oriented 3-manifolds as recently defined by Barrett and Westbury. An instructive example is provided by finite dimensional semisimple and cosemisimple Hopf algebras, for which we prove H − mod ≈ ˆH − mod. The present formalism permits a fairly complete analysis of the center of a semisimple spherical category, which is the subject of the companion paper math.CT/0111205. 1

Crossed complexes have longstanding uses, explicit and implicit, in homotopy theory and the cohomology of groups. It is here shown that the category of crossed complexes over groupoids has a symmetric monoidal closed structure in which the internal Hom functor is built from morphisms of crossed complexes, nonabelian chain homotopies between them and similar higher homotopies. The tensor product involves non-abelian constructions related to the commutator calculus and the homotopy addition lemma. This monoidal closed structure is derived from that on the equivalent category of ω-groupoids where the underlying cubical structure gives geometrically natural definitions of tensor products and homotopies.

Interpreting j-conversion as an expansion rule in the simply-typed -calculus maintains the confluence of reduction in a richer type structure. This use of expansions is supported by categorical models of reduction, where fi-contraction, as the local counit, and j-expansion, as the local unit, are linked by local triangle laws. The latter form reduction loops, but strong normalisation (to the long fij-normal forms) can be recovered by "cutting" the loops.

The purpose of this paper is to set up a theory of generalized operads and multicategories and to use it as a language in which to propose a definition of weak n-category. Included is a full explanation of why the proposed definition of n-category is a reasonable one, and of what happens when n <= 2. Generalized operads and multicategories play other parts in higher-dimensional algebra too, some of which are outlined here: for instance, they can be used to simplify the opetopic approach to n-categories expounded by Baez, Dolan and others, and are a natural language in which to discuss enrichment of categorical structures.

We study a typing scheme derived from a semantic situation where a single category possesses several closed structures, corresponding to dierent varieties of function type. In this scheme typing contexts are trees built from two (or more) binary combining operations, or in short, bunches. Bunched typing and its logical counterpart, bunched implications, have arisen in joint work of the author and David Pym. The present paper gives a basic account of the type system, and then focusses on concrete models that illustrate how it may be understood in terms of resource access and sharing. The most

This thesis concerns rewriting in the typed -calculus. Traditional categorical models of typed -calculus use concepts such as functor, adjunction and algebra to model type constructors and their associated introduction and elimination rules, with the natural categorical equations inherent in these structures providing an equational theory for -terms. One then seeks a rewrite relation which, by transforming terms into canonical forms, provides a decision procedure for this equational theory. Unfortunately the rewrite relations which have been proposed, apart from for the most simple of calculi, either generate the full equational theory but contain no decision procedure, or contain a decision procedure but only for a subtheory of that required. Our proposal is to unify the semantics and reduction theory of the typed -calculus by generalising the notion of model from categorical structures based on term equality to categorical structures based on term reduction. This is accomplished via...

theory, and change of base for groupoids and multiple