Representation theory of monoids and monoidal categories

30 June 2022

Abstract:

There is a MathOverflow question with title ''Why aren't representations of monoids studied so much?''. Well, I do not know. But it can't be because the representation theory is bad as a theory. In fact, there it is well-developed that is about 80 years old, and this theory is, imho, almost as smooth and beautiful as group representation theory itself. There are even categorifications of it. This talk is a friendly overview of the representation theory of monoids and how to categorify bits and pieces of this story.