Algebraic structures in comodule categories over weak bialgebras

Abstract

For a bialgebra $L$ coacting on a $\Bbbk$-algebra $A$, a classical result states that $A$ is a right $L$-comodule algebra if and only if $A$ is an algebra in the monoidal category $\mathcal{M}^{L}$ of right $L$-comodules; the former notion is formulaic while the latter is categorical. We generalize this result to the setting of weak bialgebras $H$. The category $\mathcal{M}^H$ admits a monoidal structure by work of Nill and B\"{o}hm-Caenepeel-Janssen, but the algebras in $\mathcal{M}^H$ are not canonically $\Bbbk$-algebras. Nevertheless, we prove that there is an isomorphism between the category of right $H$-comodule algebras and the category of algebras in $\mathcal{M}^H$. We also recall and introduce the formulaic notion of $H$ coacting on a $\Bbbk$-coalgebra and on a Frobenius $\Bbbk$-algebra, respectively, and prove analogous category isomorphism results. Our work is inspired by the physical applications of Frobenius algebras in tensor categories and by symmetries of algebras with a base algebra larger than the ground field (e.g. path algebras). We produce examples of the latter by constructing a monoidal functor from a certain corepresentation category of a bialgebra $L$ to the corepresentation category of a weak bialgebra built from $L$ (a "quantum transformation groupoid"), thereby creating weak quantum symmetries from ordinary quantum symmetries.