Group actions on 2-categories (Q1740376)

An \textit{action} of a group $G$ on a 2-category $\mathcal B$ is defined as a trihomomorphism (in the sense of Definition 3.2 in [\textit{R. Gordon} et al., Coherence for tricategories. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (1995; Zbl 0836.18001)]) with object map $\mathcal{B}$, from $G$ -- regarded as a one objected tricategory with non-trivial 1-cells only -- to the tricategory $\mathsf{2Cat}$ of 2-categories, pseudofunctors, pseudonatural transformations and modifications. Examples are constructed from $G$-graded tensor categories. The \textit{Coherence Theorem} of the paper asserts that any action of $G$ on a 2-category is induced by a functor from $G$ -- regarded as a one objected category -- to the category of 2-categories and 2-functors, up-to equivalence in a suitable sense (which is apparently weaker than the biequivalence in Gordon - Power - Street's tricategory $\mathsf{Tricat}(G,\mathsf{2Cat})$). Via a center-type construction, a $G$-action on a 2-category is shown to give rise to a braided $G$-crossed tensor category in the spirit of Definition 4.41 in [\textit{V. Drinfeld} et al., Sel. Math., New Ser. 16, No. 1, 1--119 (2010; Zbl 1201.18005)]. For an action of $G$ on a 2-category $\mathcal{B}$, the \textit{equivariant 2-category} $\mathcal{B}^G$ is defined as the hom 2-category of $\mathsf{Tricat}(G,\mathsf{2Cat})$, from the singleton 2-category with the trivial $G$-action, to $\mathcal{B}$ with the given $G$-action. It comes equipped with a forgetful 2-functor $\Phi: \mathcal{B}^G \to \mathcal{B}$. The monoidal category $\mathcal{Z}(\Phi)$ of pseudonatural transformations $\Phi\to \Phi$ (with the modifications as morphisms) is equipped with an action of $G$. The corresponding equivariant category $\mathcal{Z}(\Phi)^G$ is shown to be monoidally equivalent to the category $\mathcal{Z}(\mathcal{B}^G)$ of pseudonatural endo-transformations of the identity 2-functor on $\mathcal{B}^G$ (with the modifications as morphisms).