Generic representations of orthogonal groups: The functor category \({\mathcal F}_{\text{quad}}\) (Q2477649)

This paper explores some abelian categories associated to the category of finite-dimensional \(\mathbb F_2\)-vector spaces equipped with a quadratic form. To set the stage, let \(\mathcal F\) denote the category of functors from the category of finite-dimensional \(\mathbb F_2\)-vector spaces to the category \(\mathcal E\) of all \(\mathbb F_2\)-vector spaces. The first result gives a full and faithful exact embedding of \(\mathcal F\) into an abelian functor category \(\mathcal F_{\text{quad}}\) associated to \(\mathbb F_2\)-vector spaces with a non-degenerate quadratic form. Moreover, this embedding is shown to preserve simple objects. The second main result studies an abelian symmetric monoidal category \(\mathcal F_{\text{iso}}\) which is a subcategory of \(\mathcal F_{\text{quad}}\). It is shown that the inclusion functor is fully faithful and that it preserves simples. The category \(\mathcal F_{\text{iso}}\) is equivalent to the category of Mackey functors from the category \(\mathcal E_q^{\text{deg}}\) of finite-dimensional \(\mathbb F_2\)-vector spaces that are equipped with a possibly degenerate quadratic form to \(\mathcal E\). Finally, \(\mathcal F_{\text{iso}}\) is related to the representations of the orthogonal groups. More precisely, it is shown that there is a natural equivalence of categories \[ \mathcal F_{\text{iso}} \cong \prod_{V \in \mathcal{S}} \mathbb F_2[O(V)] \text{-mod} \] where \(\mathcal{S}\) is a set of representatives of isometry classes of objects in \(\mathcal E_q^{\deg}\). The paper contains several other results related to these categories. For instance, it is shown that the categories \(\mathcal F_{\text{quad}}\) and \(\mathcal F_{\text{iso}}\) both have enough projectives and injectives. Most of these results are from the Ph.D. thesis of the author.