Quadratic functors on pointed categories (Q631793)

A functor \(F: {\mathcal C}\to {\mathcal A}b\) from a pointed category \(\mathcal C\) to the category of abelian groups is called a polynomial functor of degree \(\leq n\) if its \(k\)-th cross-effect vanishes for all \(k>n\). Let \(\mathcal C\) be an algebraic theory, that is a pointed category such that for some \(E\in \mathcal C\) every object of \(\mathcal C\) is a finite coproduct of \(E\). In such case linear functors (i.e., polynomial functors of degree \(\leq 1\)) have the following algebraic classification. There exists a ring \(\bar \Lambda\) such that for each linear functor \(F\) the group \(F(E)\) has a right \(\bar \Lambda\)-module structure. The assignment \(F \mapsto F(E)\) establishes an equivalence between the category of linear functors \({\mathcal C}\to {\mathcal A}b\) and the category of right \(\bar \Lambda\)-modules. The goal of this paper is to give an analogous algebraic description of quadratic functors, i.e., polynomial functors of degree \(\leq 2\). Given an algebraic theory \(\mathcal C\) the authors define the notion of a quadratic \(\mathcal C\)-module. If \(F: {\mathcal C} \to {\mathcal A}b\) is a quadratic functor then the group \(F(E)\), the second cross-effect \(F(E|E)\), and certain structure maps describe such a quadratic \(\mathcal C\)-module \(\mathbb{S}_{2}(F)\). The main result of the paper shows that the assignment \(F\mapsto {\mathbb S}_{2}(F)\) gives an equivalence between the category of quadratic functors \({\mathcal C}\to {\mathcal A}b\) and the category of quadratic \(\mathcal C\)-modules. Such an equivalence is also obtained in a more general setting where \(\mathcal C\) is a pointed category with a small regular projective generator \(E\in \mathcal C\), although in this case quadratic \(\mathcal C\)-modules correspond to quadratic functors which preserve filtered colimits and certain coequalizers. The authors give a more detailed analysis of the case where the object \(E\) generating \(\mathcal C\) has a cogroup structure and show than in this instance quadratic \(\mathcal C\)-modules admit a simpler description. As an application they show that if \(\mathcal C\) is the algebraic theory of finitely generated free groups then their classification of quadratic functors coincides with the classification given by \textit{H.-J. Baues} and \textit{T. Pirashvili} [Adv. Math. 141, No. 1, 167--206 (1999; Zbl 0923.20042)].