On integral structure types

Abstract

We introduce integral structure types as a categorical analogue of virtual combinatorial species. Integral structure types then categorify power series with possibly negative coefficients in the same way that combinatorial species categorify power series with non-negative rational coefficients. The notion of an operator on combinatorial species naturally extends to integral structure types, and in light of their `negativity' we define the notion of the commutator of two operators on integral structure types. We then extend integral structure types to the setting of stuff types as introduced by Baez and Dolan, and then conclude by using integral structure types to give a combinatorial description for Chern classes of projective hypersurfaces.