Adjunction in the absence of identity (Q2667934)

Let \(\mathcal{A}\) and \(\mathcal{B}\) be two categories, and let \(F:\mathcal{A}\rightarrow \mathcal{B}\) and \(G:\mathcal{B}\rightarrow \mathcal{A}\) two functors. The pair \((F,G)\) is an adjoint pair of functors if there are bijections \(\mathcal{B}(F\, X,Y)\cong \mathcal{A}(X,G\, Y)\) natural in \(X\in \mathcal{A}\) and \(Y\in \mathcal{B}\). This condition is equivalent to the existence of adjunction morphisms \(\varepsilon:FG\to \mathrm{Id}_{\mathcal{B}}\) and \(\eta:\mathrm{Id}_{\mathcal{A}}\to GF\) satisfying \(\varepsilon_{F}\circ F(\eta)=\mathrm{id}_F \) and \(G(\varepsilon)\circ \eta_{G}=\mathrm{id}_G\), which allows a notion of adjoint pairs of \(1\)-morphisms in the setup of bicategories, which covers \(2\)-categories, monoidal categories, and strict monoidal categories. This however requires the existence of genuine identity 1-morphisms, i.e., unit objects. The authors develop a bicategorical setup in which one can speak about adjoint 1-morphisms even in the absence of genuine identity 1-morphisms. That is, letting \(\mathcal{C}\) to be a fiax category, there is a bijection between the set of bilax \(2\)-representations \(\mathbf{M}\) of \(\mathcal{C}\) satisfying \(\mathcal{C}\mathbf{M} = \mathbf{M}\) and the set of \(2\)-representations of the associated fiat \(2\)-category \(\widehat{\mathcal{C}}\) with weak units (Theorem 3.16, page 153). The authors also investigate which part of \(2\)-representation theory of 2-categories extends to this new setup (Theorem 3.29, page 160): let \(\mathbf{M}\) be a finitary bilax \(2\)-representation of a fiax category \(\mathcal{C}\) generated by some nonzero object \(X\in\mathbf{M}(\texttt{i})\). The functors \(\Theta_{\texttt{j}}\) give rise to an equivalence of bilax \(2\)-representations of \(\mathcal{C}\) between \(\underline{\mathbf{M}}\) and \(\text{comod}_{\underline{\mathcal{C}}}\text{-}\mathrm{C}_X\); this equivalence can be restricted to an equivalence of finitary bilax \(2\)-representations of \(\mathcal{C}\) between \(\mathbf{M}\) and \(\text{inj}_{\underline{\mathcal{C}}}\text{-}\mathrm{C}_X\), where the latter denotes the bilax \(2\)-subrepresentation of \(\text{comod}_{\underline{\mathcal{C}}}\text{-}\mathrm{C}_X\) and each \((\text{inj}_{\underline{\mathcal{C}}}\text{-}\mathrm{C}_X)(\texttt{j})\) is the category of right injective \(\mathrm{C}_X\)-comodules in \(\underline{\mathcal{C}}(\texttt{i},\texttt{j})\).