The Structure of the Grothendieck Rings of Wreath Product Deligne Categories and their Generalisations

Abstract

Given a tensor category $\mathcal{C}$ over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, we may form the wreath product category $\mathcal{W}_n(\mathcal{C})$. It was shown in \cite{Ryba} that the Grothendieck rings of these wreath product categories stabilise in some sense as $n \to \infty$. The resulting "limit" ring, $\mathcal{G}_\infty^{\mathbb{Z}}(\mathcal{C})$, is isomorphic to the Grothendieck ring of the wreath product Deligne category $S_t(\mathcal{C})$ as defined by \cite{Mori}. This ring only depends on the Grothendieck ring $\mathcal{G}(\mathcal{C})$. Given a ring $R$ which is free as a $\mathbb{Z}$-module, we construct a ring $\mathcal{G}_\infty^{\mathbb{Z}}(R)$ which specialises to $\mathcal{G}_\infty^{\mathbb{Z}}(\mathcal{C})$ when $R = \mathcal{G}(\mathcal{C})$. We give a description of $\mathcal{G}_\infty^{\mathbb{Z}}(R)$ using generators very similar to the basic hooks of \cite{Nate}. We also show that $\mathcal{G}_\infty^{\mathbb{Z}}(R)$ is a $\lambda$-ring wherever $R$ is, and that $\mathcal{G}_\infty^{\mathbb{Z}}(R)$ is (unconditionally) a Hopf algebra. Finally we show that $\mathcal{G}_\infty^{\mathbb{Z}}(R)$ is isomorphic to the Hopf algebra of distributions on the formal neighbourhood of the identity in $(W\otimes_{\mathbb{Z}} R)^\times$, where $W$ is the ring of Big Witt Vectors.