From subfactors to categories and topology. I: Frobenius algebras in and Morita equivalence of tensor categories (Q1868703)

Subfactor theory in operator algebra is the original setting in which \textit{V. Jones} was led to his polynomial invariant for knots. That theory was later eliminated in various reformulations of the invariant. One of these reformulations involves monoidal (or tensor) categories. The author has embarked on a series of papers intent on expressing the algebraic side of the theory of finite index subfactors in a categorical setting, thereby deepening the connection between categorical algebra and low-dimensional topology. In the present paper he defines a weaker notion of Morita equivalence for monoidal categories than that of \textit{S. R. Johnson} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 59, 169--177 (1989; Zbl 0693.18005)] and relates it to the study of Frobenius algebras, especially to stongly separable ones. The monoidal category of modules over a semisimple and cosemisimple Hopf algebra is shown to be weakly monoidally Morita equivalent to the category of modules over the linear dual Hopf algebra. [For part II, see \textit{M. Müger}, ibid. 159--219 (2003; Zbl 1033.18003)].