Constructing equivariant spectra via categorical Mackey functors (Q2340089)

A permutative category is a symmetric strict monoidal category. By \(\underline{Perm}\) we denote the multicategory of permutative categories whose multimorphisms are given by a set of \(k\)-morphisms \((\mathcal{A}_1, \cdots, \mathcal{A}_k) \to\mathcal{B}\) for \(k \geq 0\). By a \textbf{PC}-category we mean a category enriched in \(\underline{Perm}\). The authors show that for a given \textbf{PC}-category \(C\) there is a \(K\)-theory functor \(\mathbb{K} : \underline{Perm} \to Spec\) and an induced 2-functor \(\mathbb{K}_\bullet : C \to Spec\) which sends \(C\) to a spectrally enriched category with the same collection of objects and with morphism spectra from \(X\) to \(Y\) given by \(\mathbb{K}C(X, Y)\). Consider here the 2-category of small permutative categories, denoted by \(Perm\), then we see that this is a \textbf{PC}-category and so it enables us to apply the above result to this category. From this it follows that the bilinear evaluation map \(ev : (Perm(\mathcal{A}, \mathcal{B}), \mathcal{A}) \to \mathcal {B}\) induces a map of spectra \(\mathbb{K}(ev) : \mathbb{K}(Perm(\mathcal{A}, \mathcal{B})) \wedge \mathbb{K}\mathcal{A} \to \mathbb{K}\mathcal{B}\) and so denoting by \(F\) a \textbf{PC}-functor, we have the map of spectra \[ \Phi : \mathbb{K}(Perm(\mathcal{A}, \mathcal{B})) \to F(\mathbb{K}\mathcal{A}, \mathbb{K}\mathcal{B}) \] which is obtained as the adjoint of \(\mathbb{K}(ev)\). Let \(G\mathcal{E}\) be the category of \(G\)-sets of a finite group \(G\) and put \(G\mathcal{B}=\mathbb{K}_\bullet G\mathcal{E}\) from the fact that it is a \textbf{PC}-category. Let \(X : G\mathcal{E}^{\text{op}} \to Perm\) be a \textbf{PC}-functor. Then the composition of \(\mathbb{K}_\bullet X : G\mathcal{B}^{\text{op}} \to \mathbb{K}_\bullet(Perm)\) and \(\Phi : \mathbb{K}Perm \to Spec\) gives rise to a functor \[ K_G : \text{Fun}_{\mathbf{PC}}(G\mathcal{E}^{\text{op}}, Perm) \to \text{Fun}_{Spec}(G\mathcal{B}^{\text{op}}, Spec) \] (Theorem 7.5). This is the main result of this paper which gives a general method for constructing equivariant spectra from categorical data via Mackey functors. In the following two sections, in fact, using the construction given here the authors produce equivariant Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectra for Mackey functors and equivariant suspension spectra for finite \(G\)-sets.