Deligne categories as limits in rank and characteristic

Abstract

We give new interpretations of the Deligne categories $\underline{Rep}(GL_t)$ and $\underline{Rep}(S_t)$ (and their abelian envelopes) over $\mathbb{C}$ in terms of modular representations of general linear and symmetric groups of large rank in large characteristic. In particular we make sense of the sentence "$\underline{Rep}(S_n)$ is the limit of $Rep(S_{p+n})$ over $\bar{\mathbb{F}}_p$ as $p$ goes to infinity". We then give examples of how to pass results between these different settings.