In category theory, a traced monoidal category is a category with some extra structure which gives a reasonable notion of feedback.
A traced symmetric monoidal category is a symmetric monoidal category C together with a family of functions
called a trace, satisfying the following conditions:
- naturality in : for every and ,
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- naturality in : for every and ,
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- dinaturality in : for every and
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- vanishing I: for every , (with being the right unitor),
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- vanishing II: for every
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- superposing: for every and ,
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- yanking:
(where is the symmetry of the monoidal category).
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Properties
- Every compact closed category admits a trace.
- Given a traced monoidal category C, the Int construction generates the free (in some bicategorical sense) compact closure Int(C) of C.
References
- Joyal, André; Street, Ross; Verity, Dominic (1996). "Traced monoidal categories". Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 119 (3): 447–468. Bibcode:1996MPCPS.119..447J. doi:10.1017/S0305004100074338. S2CID 50511333.