symmetric monoidal (∞,1)-category of spectra
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monoid theory in algebra:
In a monoidal category, there is a notion of modules over monoid objects which generalizes the classical notion of modules over rings. This is a special case of module over a monad where the monad is taken to be , with some monoid object.
Let be a monoidal category and a monoid object in , hence an object equipped with a multiplication morphism
and a unit element
satisfying the associativity law and the unit law.
A (left) module over in is
an object
equipped with a morphism
in
such that this satisfies the axioms of an action, in that the following are commuting diagrams in :
and
Similarly a right module over in is
an object
equipped with a morphism
in
such that this satisfies the axioms of a (right) action, in that the following are commuting diagrams in :
and
Recall that a ring, in the classical sense, is a monoid object in the category Ab of abelian groups with monoidal structure given by the tensor product of abelian groups . Accordingly a module over is a module in according to def. .
We unwind what this means in terms of abelian groups regarded as sets with extra structure:
A module over a ring is
an object Ab, hence an abelian group;
equipped with a morphism
in Ab; hence a function of the underlying sets that sends elements
and which is a bilinear function in that it satisfies
and
for all and ;
such that the diagram
commutes in Ab, which means that for all elements as before we have
such that the diagram
commutes, which means that on elements as above
The category of all modules over all commutative rings is Mod. It is a bifibration
over CRing.
This fibration may be characterized intrinsically, which gives yet another way of defining -modules. This we turn to below.
Simpler than the traditionally default notion of a module in , as above is that of a module in Set, equipped with its cartesian monoidal structure. (These days one may want to think of this as a notion of modules over F1.)
A monoid object in is just a monoid, for instance a discrete group . A -module in is simpy an action, say a group action.
For Set and a discrete group, a -action of on is a function
such that
the neutral element acts trivially
the action property holds: for all and we have .
If a discrete group acts, as in def. , on the set underlying an abelian group and acts by linear maps (abelian group homomorphisms), then this action is equivalently a module over the group ring as in def. .
For a discrete group, write Ring for the ring
whose underlying abelian group is the free abelian group on the set underlying ;
whose multiplication is given on basis elements by the group operation in .
For a finite group an element r of is for the form
with . Addition is given by addition of the coefficients and multiplication is given by the formula
For Ab an abelian group with underlying set , -actions such that for each element the function is an abelian group homomorphism are equivalently -module structures on .
Since the underlying abelian group of is a free by definition, a bilinear map is equivalently for each basis element a linear map . Similarly the module property is determined on basis elements, where it reduces manifestly to the action property of on .
This reformulation of linear -actions in terms of modules allows to treat -actions in terms of homological algebra. See at Ext – Relation to group cohomology.
The basic properties of categories of modules over monoid objects in symmetric monoidal categories are spelled out in sections 1.2 and 1.3 of
A summary is in section 4.1 of
See also MO/180673, and the references at modules over a monad.
For the classical case of the symmetric monoidal category Ab, a standard textbook is
Last revised on May 27, 2023 at 21:59:25. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.