Algebras versus coalgebras (Q2426119)

This survey paper is in the form of a list of categorical constructions building on the idea of dualism of algebras and coalgebras. It starts from elementary notions such as functors, natural transformations, adjoint functors through (co)monads, (co)modules and \(G\)-comodules. Lifting of functors and monads is applied to lifting of a tensor product to modules. To make the category of \(S\)-modules a unital tensor category one needs Hopf monads and they are defined here on an arbitrary category after imposition of certain compatibility conditions and making an equivalence between the ground category and the category of the associated bimodules. For a set \(G\), the endofunctor \(G\times\) on the category of sets has these properties iff \(G\) is a group. Then liftings are discussed for endofunctors and (co)monads, with cross-liftings as a possibility. For functors \(F, H:\mathcal A\to \mathcal B\), an object \(A\in \operatorname{Obj}\mathcal A\) is called an \((F,H)\)-dimodule (or dialgebra by some other authors), if there is a morphism \(F(A)\to H(A)\) in \(\mathcal B\). The author echoes a suggestion by Hagino that algebras and coalgebras may be subsumed in the notion of dimodules. The author points out that some of the notions and constructions have been discovered and rediscovered, sometime a number of times, and it is likely that at least some of the authors he credits are not the definitive ones. This paper will become more useful with a number of illustrative examples and then with any examples, since for some of the constructions, it is not clear how to find suitable examples at all. There are 57 references.