The 2-group of symmetries of a split chain complex (Q427771)

The author considers the 2-category of chain complexes, \(\mathbf{Ch}(\mathcal{A})\), where \(\mathcal{A}\) is an arbitrary \(\mathbb{K}\)-linear abelian category (\(\mathbb{K}\) any commutative ring with unit). The main result of the article is computing the 2-group of symmetries of an arbitrary split chain complex \(A\) (Theorem 7). It is proved that it is a split 2-group whose equivalence class depends only on the homology of \(A\), and that it is equivalent to the trivial 2-group when the complex \(A\) is exact. This provides a description of the general linear 2-group of a Baez and Crans 2-vector space over an arbitrary field \(\mathbb{F}\).