Invariants of the special orthogonal group and an enhanced Brauer category (Q1747822)

Summary: We first give a short intrinsic, diagrammatic proof of the first fundamental theorem of invariant theory (FFT) for the special orthogonal group \(\mathrm{SO}_m(\mathbb{C})\), given the FFT for \(\mathrm{O}_m(\mathbb{C})\). We then define, by means of a presentation with generators and relations, an enhanced Brauer category \(\widetilde{\mathcal{B}}(m)\) by adding a single generator to the usual Brauer category \(\mathcal{B}(m)\), together with four relations. We prove that our category \(\widetilde{\mathcal{B}}(m)\) is actually (and remarkably) equivalent to the category of representations of \(\mathrm{SO}_m\) generated by the natural representation. The FFT for \(\mathrm{SO}_m\) amounts to the surjectivity of a certain functor \(\mathcal{F}\) on Hom spaces, while the Second Fundamental Theorem for \(\mathrm{SO}_m\) says simply that \(\mathcal{F}\) is injective on Hom spaces. This theorem provides a diagrammatic means of computing the dimensions of spaces of homomorphisms between tensor modules for \(\mathrm{SO}_m\) (for any \(m\)).