Q-system completion is a 3-functor

Abstract

Q-systems are unitary versions of Frobenius algebra objects which appeared in the theory of subfactors. In recent joint work with R. Hern\'andez Palomares and C. Jones, the authors defined a notion of Q-system completion for C*/W* 2-categories, which is a unitary version of a higher idempotent completion in the spirit of Douglas--Reutter and Gaiotto--Johnson-Freyd. In this article, we prove that Q-system completion is a dagger 3-functor on the dagger 3-category of C*/W* 2-categories. We also prove that Q-system completion satisfies a universal property analogous to the universal property satisfied by idempotent completion for 1-categories.