Enrichment and internalization in tricategories, the case of tensor categories and alternative notion to intercategories

TL;DR

This paper explores the internalization of tricategories in the context of tensor categories, proposing an alternative to intercategories, and establishing connections between monoidal structures, internal categories, and enriched categories in tricategories.

Contribution

It introduces a new notion of internal categories in tricategories, resolves the monoidal embedding issue for bicategories, and links monoids in double categories to weak pseudomonoids in a tricategory.

Findings

Monoidal structure of (Dbl,⊗) resolves the embedding issue.

Categories enriched over certain tricategories can be internal categories.

Tensor categories can be viewed as categories internal in a tricategory.

Abstract

This paper emerged as a result of tackling the following three issues. Firstly, we would like the well known embedding of bicategories into pseudo double categories to be monoidal, which it is not if one uses the usual notion of a monoidal pseudo double category. Secondly, in \cite{Gabi} the question was raised: which would be an alternative notion to intercategories of Grandis and Par\'e, so that monoids in B\"ohm's monoidal category $(Dbl,\ot)$ of strict double categories and strict double functors with a Gray type monoidal product be an example of it? We obtain and prove that precisely the monoidal structure of $(Dbl,\ot)$ resolves the first question. On the other hand, resolving the second question, we upgrade the category $Dbl$ to a tricategory $\DblPs$ and propose %an alternative definition of intercategories as to consider internal categories in this tricategory. %, enabling monoids in $(Dbl,\ot)$ to be examples of this gadget. Apart from monoids in $(Dbl,\ot)$ - more importanlty, weak pseudomonoids in a tricategory containing $(Dbl,\ot)$ as a sub 1-category - most of the examples of intercategories are also examples of this gadget, the ones that escape are those that rely on laxness of the product on the pullback, as duoidal categories. For the latter purpose we define categories internal to tricategories (of the type of $\DblPs$), which simultaneously serves our third motive. Namely, inspired by the tricategory and $(1\times 2)$-category of tensor categories, we prove under mild conditions that categories enriched over certain type of tricategories may be made into categories internal in them. We illustrate this occurrence for tensor categories with respect to the ambient tricategory $2\x\Cat_{wk}$ of 2-categories, pseudofunctors, pseudonatural transformations and modifications.