Picard groups, Grothendieck rings, and Burnside rings of categories (Q5949987)

\textit{P. Freyd} [Proc. Conf. Categorical Algebra, Springer-Verlag, New York, 121-172 (1966; Zbl 0195.52901)] said, ``Perhaps the purpose of categorical algebra is to show that which is trivial is trivially trivial''. However, the author of this article prefers an update of that quote: ``Perhaps the purpose of categorical algebra is to show that which is formal is formally formal''. In this article, the author gives a nice discussion of the Picard group, the Grothendieck ring, and the Burnside ring of a symmetric monoidal category, and exhibit many examples from algebra, homological algebra, topology, and algebraic geometry. The list of references is useful.