Monads and comonads in module categories

Abstract

Let $A$ be a ring and $\M_A$ the category of $A$-modules. It is well known in module theory that for any $A $-bimodule $B$, $B$ is an $A$-ring if and only if the functor $-\otimes_A B: \M_A\to \M_A$ is a monad (or triple). Similarly, an $A $-bimodule $\C$ is an $A$-coring provided the functor $-\otimes_A\C:\M_A\to \M_A$ is a comonad (or cotriple). The related categories of modules (or algebras) of $-\otimes_A B$ and comodules (or coalgebras) of $-\otimes_A\C$ are well studied in the literature. On the other hand, the right adjoint endofunctors $\Hom_A(B,-)$ and $\Hom_A(\C,-)$ are a comonad and a monad, respectively, but the corresponding (co)module categories did not find much attention so far. The category of $\Hom_A(B,-)$-comodules is isomorphic to the category of $B$-modules, while the category of $\Hom_A(\C,-)$-modules (called $\C$-contramodules by Eilenberg and Moore) need not be equivalent to the category of $\C$-comodules. The purpose of this paper is to investigate these categories and their relationships based on some observations of the categorical background. This leads to a deeper understanding and characterisations of algebraic structures such as corings, bialgebras and Hopf algebras. For example, it turns out that the categories of $\C$-comodules and $\Hom_A(\C,-)$-modules are equivalent provided $\C$ is a coseparable coring. Furthermore, a bialgebra $H$ over a commutative ring $R$ is a Hopf algebra if and only if $\Hom_R(H-)$ is a Hopf bimonad on $\M_R$ and in this case the categories of $H$-Hopf modules and mixed $\Hom_R(H,-)$-bimodules are both equivalent to $\M_R$.