Towards functor exponentiation (Q1644995)

In Lie theory, the exponential map connects a Lie algebra and its Lie group. Idempotented version of quantized universal enveloping algebras of simple Lie algebras have been categorified by \textit{M. Khovanov} and \textit{A. D. Lauda} [Represent. Theory 13, 309--347 (2009; Zbl 1188.81117); Quantum Topol. 1, No. 1, 1--92 (2010; Zbl 1206.17015)] and \textit{R. Rouquier} [``\(2\)-Kac-Moody algebras'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:0812.5023}]. This paper can be viewed as a small step towards lifting the exponential map to the categorical level. The authors focus on the case of \(\mathfrak{sl}_2\) and consider a possible framework to categorify the exponential map \(\exp(-f)\) given the categorification of a generator \(f\) of \(\mathfrak{sl}_2\) by \textit{A. D. Lauda} [Adv. Math. 225, No. 6, 3327--3424 (2010; Zbl 1219.17012)]. In this setup the Taylor expansions of \(\exp(-f)\) and \(\exp(f)\) turn into complexes built out of categorified divided powers of \(f\). The proposed framework is only an approximation to categorification of exponentiation, because the functors categorifying \(\exp(f)\) and \(\exp(-f)\) are not invertible. One possible application of categorified exponentiation would be the categorification of integral forms of Lie groups and the exponential map between a Lie algebra and its Lie group.