Representable multicategories (Q1570232)

The tensor product of a list of vector spaces is commonly introduced after defining multilinear functions. Many naturally occurring tensor products on categories also represent some kind of multimorphism. A multicategory [\textit{J. Lambek}, ``Deductive systems and categories. II'', Lect. Notes Math. 86, 76-122 (1969; Zbl 0198.33701)] is a category with an abstract notion of multimorphism and substitution operations. This paper defines a precise 2-category of multicategories by making efficient use of the bicategory of spans. There is an obvious sense in which the multimorphisms may be represented by a multiple tensor product. The author points out that, besides this, one should also demand that the universal morphisms should be closed under composition; this is equivalent to a strong representability condition. The consequential concept of representable multicategory is then compared with monoidal category. A form of coherence is obtained.