Mackeyfication of equivariant categories I

Abstract

Colloquially speaking, `equivariant categories' refer to families of additive categories $\mathcal{A}(G)$ depending 2-functorially on a finite group $G$. We construct approximations of equivariant categories by Mackey 2-functors, both on the left and on the right. The idea is to enlarge $\mathcal{A}$ in a minimal way to make induction appear. These `mackeyfications' are inspired by Boltje's work with ordinary Mackey 1-functors. We also relate our left and right mackeyfications via a mark transformation. Finally we discuss examples.