Universal properties of Delannoy categories

Abstract

Recently, the second and third authors introduced a new symmetric tensor category $\underline{\mathrm{Perm}}(G, \mu)$ associated to an oligomorphic group $G$ with a measure $\mu$. When $G$ is the group of order preserving self-bijections of the real line there are four such measures, and the resulting tensor categories are called the Delannoy categories. The first Delannoy category is semi-simple, and was studied in detail by Harman, Snowden, and Snyder. We give universal properties for all four Delannoy categories in terms of ordered \'etale algebras. As a consequence, we show that the second and third Delannoy categories admit at least two local abelian envelopes, and the fourth admits at least four. We also prove a coarser universal property for $\underline{\mathrm{Perm}}(G, \mu)$ for a general oligomorphic group $G$.