Selective categories and linear canonical relations (Q2339219)

A natural domain for a quantisation functor would be the category of symplectic manifolds, with \textit{canonical relations} as morphisms. A canonical relation between two symplectic manifolds \(M\) and \(N\) is a Lagrangian submanifold of \(M \times \bar N\), where \(\bar N\) is the manifold \(N\) with minus the original symplectic form. An issue with the definition of this category is that the (set-theoretical) composition of two canonical relations need not be a canonical relation itself. Indeed, it may not even be a smooth manifold unless a transversality condition between the two relations holds. \textit{V. Guillemin} and \textit{S. Sternberg} [Am. J. Math. 101, 915--955 (1979; Zbl 0446.58019)] studied the subcategory of symplectic vector spaces, with linear canonical relations (i.e., Lagrangian linear subspaces instead of submanifolds). An issue in this setting is that the composition of such relations may not be continuous in a natural topology on this category. In the present paper, the authors develop a category-theoretic framework to handle these issues. They first introduce the notion of a \textit{selective category}, which has a distinguished class of \textit{suave} morphisms, and of \textit{congenial} pairs of suave morphisms. One property is that the composition of a congenial pair of morphisms is suave. These respectively formalise canonical relations, and pairs of canonical relations satisfying the transversality condition for their composition to be well-defined. They then construct the \textit{Wehrheim-Woodward category} of a selective category. Roughly speaking, this is the universal category extending the composition of congenial pairs of suave morphisms in the original category. A selective category with classes of suave morphisms called reductions and coreductions is called a \textit{highly selective category}. In the symplectic setting, reductions are canonical relations given by surjective submersions on submanifolds. In addition, one can consider a \textit{rigid monoidal} structure on a category, which in the symplectic case represents taking Cartesian products and multiplying symplectic forms by \(-1\). If highly selective and rigid monoidal structures on a category satisfy certain compatibility conditions, the category is called a \textit{highly selective rigid monoidal category}. The authors prove that the Wehrheim-Woodward category of such a category inherits the relevant structures. The focus then shifts to the linear symplectic setting. The Wehrheim-Woodward category of the category of symplectic vector spaces and linear canonical relations is described explicitly, and a topology on it is defined. This topology is called the \textit{Sabot topology}, and makes a reduction operation and the composition of linear canonical relations continuous.