arXiv2026
Let $k$ be a field and let $C$ be a small category. A $k$-linear representation of $C$, or a $kC$-module, is a functor from $C$ to the category of finite dimensional vector spaces over $k$. When the category $C$ is more general than a linear order, then its representation type is generally infinite and in most cases wild. Hence the task of understanding such representations in terms of their indecomposable factors becomes difficult at best, and impossible in general. This paper offers a new set of ideas designed to enable studying modules locally. Specifically, inspired by work in discrete calculus on graphs, we set the foundations for a calculus type analysis of $kC$-modules, under some restrictions on the category $C$. As a starting point, for a $kC$-module $M$ we define its gradient \emph{gradient} \(\nabla[M]\) as a virtual module in the Grothendieck group of isomorphism classes of $kC$-modules. Pushing the analogy with ordinary differential calculus and discrete calculus on graphs, we define left and right divergence via the appropriate left and right Kan extensions and two bilinear pairings on modules and study their properties, specifically with respect to adjointness relations between the gradient and the left and right divergence. The left and right divergence are shown to be rather easily computable in favourable cases. Having set the scene, we concentrate specifically on the case where the category $C$ is a finite poset. Our main result is a necessary and sufficient condition for the gradient of a module $M$ to vanish under certain hypotheses on the poset. We next investigate implications for two modules whose gradients are equal. Finally we consider the resulting left and right Laplacians, namely the compositions of the divergence with the gradient, and study an example of the relationship between the vanishing of the Laplacians and the gradient.