Discrete pre-Tannakian categories

Abstract

Pre-Tannakian categories are a natural class of tensor categories that can be viewed as generalizations of algebraic groups. We define a pre-Tannkian category to be discrete if it is generated by an \'etale commutative algebra; these categories generalize finite groups. The main theorem of this paper establishes a rough classification of these categories: we show that any discrete pre-Tannakian $\mathcal{C}$ category is associated to an oligomorphic group $G$, via a construction we recently introduced. In certain cases, such as when $\mathcal{C}$ has enough projectives, we completely describe $\mathcal{C}$ in terms of $G$.