Nuclear and trace ideals in tensored \(^*\)-categories (Q1818626)

The category \({\mathcal R}el\) of sets and relations is a compact closed category, i.e., a *-autonomous category with a natural isomorphism \(A^*\otimes B^*\approx(A\otimes B)^*\). The category \({\mathcal H}ilb\) of Hilbert spaces and bounded linear maps has likewise a tensor product and a tensor preserving involution which is the identity on objects, but lacks the closed structure of \({\mathcal R}el\). Its structure is axiomatized by the notion of a tensored *-category. Moreover, the category \({\mathcal H}ilb\) contains a large ideal of morphisms, namely the Hilbert-Schmidt maps which have the basic structure of a closed category (without identities). To axiomatize that structure the authors introduce the notions of nuclear ideal and nuclear morphism in a tensored *-category which are suggested by Grothendieck's notion of nuclear morphism between Banach spaces. Nuclearity is studied first in the category \({\mathcal H}ilb\) of Hilbert spaces, the category \({\mathcal P}{\mathcal I}nj\) of sets and partial injective functions, and in the category \({\mathcal X}{\mathcal R}el\) of crossed \(M\)-sets for a commutative monoid \(M\) and the corresponding relations. Then two further examples are presented where composition is defined by integrals. The first such category is the category \({\mathcal D}{\mathcal R}el\), of open subsets of \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and tame distributions as morphisms. It is a tensored *-category which has a nuclear ideal consisting of tame distributions with functional kernel. The second category is a category of probabilistic relations, denoted by \({\mathcal P}{\mathcal R}el\), whose objects are Polish probability spaces and whose morphisms are measures on the product space satisfying an absolute continuity property. It is again a tensored *-category with a nuclear ideal consisting of measures having a functional kernel. Finally the authors introduce the notion of a trace ideal in an autonomous category and study a correspondence between nuclear ideals and trace ideals in a tensored *-category. That correspondence is suggested by the one between Hilbert-Schmidt operators and trace operators on Hilbert spaces.