nLab
bicategorical trace

Idea

A generalization of the notion of trace in a monoidal category to a bicategory context.

Examples

The following traditional notions of “traces” turn out to be special cases of bicategorical traces

• All symmetric monoidal traces, such as the Lefschetz number.

• The Reidemeister trace.

References

• Kate Ponto, Michael Shulman, Shadows and traces in bicategories (arXiv:0910.1306)

A survey is in

• Mike Shulman, Traces in monoidal categories and bicategories (2008) (pdf slides)