Algorithmic Problems in Categories of Partitions

Abstract

Categories of partitions are combinatorial structures arising from the representation theory of certain compact quantum groups and are linked to classical diagram algebras such as the Temperley-Lieb algebra. In this paper, we present efficient algorithms and data-structures for partitions of sets and their corresponding category operations, including a concrete implementation in the computer algebra system OSCAR. Moreover, we show that there exists a category of partitions for which the natural computational problems of deciding membership of a given partition as well as counting partitions of a given size are algorithmically undecidable.