Modular functors in homotopy quantum field theory and tortile structures. (Q1414052)

The authors define a 2-category associated to a based topological space \(X\) whose objects are based continuous functions from a disjoint collection of circles into \(X\), 1-morphisms are smooth cobordisms between the circles, and 2-morphisms are orientation-preserving diffeomorphisms between the 1-morphisms. The homotopy surface 2-category associated to \(X\) is then a quotient of this 2-category under a certain equivalence. A \(k\)-additive category (where \(k\) is an algebraically closed field) is then associated to a family of 2-functors from this 2-category to the 2-category of idempotent complete \(k\)-additive categories. The remainder of the paper gives properties of this associated \(k\)-additive category in case \(X\) is a \(K(\pi,1)\) space with \(\pi\) a discrete group and in the general case. In particular, it is shown that the associated \(k\)-additive category is a lax tortile \(\pi\)-category when \(X\) is a \(K(\pi,1)\) space.