arXiv · math/0506600
Associativity as Commutativity
Abstract
It is shown that coherence conditions for monoidal categories concerning associativity are analogous to coherence conditions for symmetric or braided strictly monoidal categories, where associativity arrows are identities. Mac Lane's pentagonal coherence condition for associativity is decomposed into conditions concerning commutativity, among which we have a condition analogous to naturality and a degenerate case of Mac Lane's hexagonal condition for commutativity. This decomposition is analogous to the derivation of the Yang-Baxter equation from Mac Lane's hexagon and the naturality of commutativity. The pentagon is reduced to an inductive definition of a kind of commutativity.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
K. Dosen, Z. Petric. 2007-05-18. Associativity as Commutativity. https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0506600
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.