Cohomology theory in 2-categories

Abstract

Recently, symmetric categorical groups are used for the study of the Brauer groups of symmetric monoidal categories. As a part of these efforts, some algebraic structures of the 2-category of symmetric categorical groups $\mathrm{SCG}$ are being investigated. In this paper, we consider a 2-categorical analogue of an abelian category, in such a way that it contains $\mathrm{SCG}$ as an example. As a main theorem, we construct a long cohomology 2-exact sequence from any extension of complexes in such a 2-category. Our axiomatic and self-dual definition will enable us to simplify the proofs, by analogy with abelian categories.