Skein Construction of Balanced Tensor Products

Abstract

The theory of tensor categories has found applications across various fields, including representation theory, quantum field theory (conformal in 2 dimensions, and topological in 3 and 4 dimensions), quantum invariants of low-dimensional objects, topological phases of matter, and topological quantum computation. In essence, it is a categorification of the classical theory of algebras and modules. In this analogy, the Deligne tensor product $\boxtimes$ is to the linear tensor $\otimes_{\mathbb{C}}$ as the balanced tensor product $\boxtimes_C$ is to the tensor over algebra $\otimes_A$, where $\mathbb{C}$ is a field, $A$ is a $\mathbb{C}$-algebra, and $C$ is a tensor category. Before this work, several algebraic constructions for balanced tensor products were known, including categories of modules, internal Hom spaces, and generalized categorical centers. In this paper, we introduce a topological construction based on skein theory that offers a better mix of algebra and topology. This approach not only works for products of multiple module categories, but also provides the missing key to proving that the Turaev-Viro state sum model naturally arises from the 3-functor in the classification of fully extended field theories. Building on this result, we establish this long-anticipated proof in an upcoming work.