Infinite symmetric groups and combinatorial constructions of topological field theory type

Abstract

The paper contains a survey of train constructions for infinite symmetric groups and related groups. For certain pairs (a group $G$, a subgroup $K$), we construct categories, whose morphisms are two-dimensional surfaces tiled by polygons and colored in a certain way. A product of morphisms is a gluing of combinatorial bordisms. For a unitary representation of $G$ we assign a functor from the category of bordisms to the category of Hilbert spaces and bounded operators. The construction has numerous variations, instead of surfaces there arise also one-dimensional objects of Brauer diagram type, multi-dimensional pseudomanifolds, bipartite graphs