Gray tensor products and lax functors of \((\infty, 2)\)-categories (Q2232726)

The category of \(2\)-categories carries a monoidal structure, given by the \textit{Gray tensor product} [\textit{J. W. Gray}, Formal category theory: Adjointness for 2-categories. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag (1974; Zbl 0285.18006)]. As is often the case, the monoidal structure comes in a few guises, Gray's original version being a pseudo version while there being a lax and an oplax versions. While the cartesian product is badly-behaved with respect to the folk model category on \(2\)-categories, it was shown by \textit{S. Lack} [\(K\)-Theory 26, No. 2, 171--205 (2002; Zbl 1017.18005)] that the pseudo Gray tensor product is compatible with the folk model category, being also the case for the lax and oplax versions of the Gray tensor product, as was recently demonstrated by \textit{D. Ara} and \textit{M. Lucas} [Theory Appl. Categ. 35, 745--808 (2020; Zbl 1443.18008)]. This paper introduces and studies a particularly well-behaved model of the (oplax) Gray tensor product for \(\left( \infty,2\right) \)-categories, working in the category of scaled simplicial sets equipped with the bicategorical model structure [\textit{J. Lurie}, ``\((\infty,2)\)-categories and the Goodwillie calculus. I'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:0905.0462}; the first author et al., ``On the equivalence of all models for \((\infty,2)\)-categories'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1911.01905}] and providing a Gray tensor product which is associative on-the-nose left Quillen bifunctor. The main motivation behind the authors' interest in the Gray tensor product comes from the recent book [A study in derived algebraic geometry. Volume I: Correspondences and duality. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2017; Zbl 1408.14001); A study in derived algebraic geometry. Volume II: Deformations, Lie theory and formal geometry. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2017; Zbl 1409.14003)], where \textit{D. Gaitsgory} and \textit{N. Rozenblyum} make use of the Gray tensor product in order to develop a formalism of categories of correspondences. A synopsis of the paper consisting of three sections goes as follows. \begin{itemize} \item \S 1 fixes the notation, recalling the categories of marked and scaled simplicial sets with their respective marked categorical and bicategorical model structures. \item \S 2 introduces the Gray tensor product and the closely related notion of (op)lax transformations, studying some of its basic properties. \S 2.2 compares the definition of the Gray tensor product in this paper with that of \textit{D. R. B. Verity} [Adv. Math. 219, No. 4, 1081--1149 (2008; Zbl 1158.18007); Contemp. Math. 431, 441--467 (2007; Zbl 1137.18005)] within the setting of complicial sets under the Quillen equivalence between the two models established in [\textit{A. Gagna} et al., ``On the equivalence of all models for \((\infty,2)\)-categories'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1911.01905}]. \S 2.3 establishes that the Gray tensor product in this paper is left Quillen bifunctor, which is the main result of the paper. \item \S 3 is bestowed on establishing a universal mapping property for the Gray product in terms of a suitable notion of oplax functors, which is generalized from classical \(2\)-category theory to the setting of \(\infty\)-bicategories. \end{itemize}