Frobenius objects in the category of relations

Abstract

We give a characterization, in terms of simplicial sets, of Frobenius objects in the category of relations. This result generalizes a result of Heunen, Contreras, and Cattaneo showing that special dagger Frobenius objects in the category of relations are in correspondence with groupoids. As an additional example, we construct a Frobenius object in the category of relations whose elements are certain cohomology classes in a compact oriented Riemannian manifold.