(Co)ends for representations of tensor categories

Abstract

We generalize the notion of ends and coends in category theory to the realm of module categories over finite tensor categories. We call this new concept "module (co)end". This tool allows us to give different proofs to several known results in the theory of representations of finite tensor categories. As a new application, we present a description of the relative Serre functor for module categories in terms of a module coend, in a analogous way as a Morita invariant description of the Nakayama functor of abelian categories presented in [J. Fuchs, G. Schaumann and C. Schweigert, Eilenberg-Watts calculus for finite categories and a bimodule Radford S^4 theorem, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 373 (2020), 1-40]