Fusion categories in terms of graphs and relations. (Q654916)

Summary: Every fusion category \(\mathcal C\) that is \(k\)-linear over a suitable field \(k\) is the category of finite-dimensional comodules of a weak Hopf algebra \(H\). This weak Hopf algebra is finite-dimensional, cosemisimple and has commutative bases. It arises as the universal coend with respect to the long canonical functor \(\omega\colon\mathcal C\to\mathbf{Vect}_k\). We show that \(H\) is a quotient \(H=H[\mathcal G]/I\) of a weak bialgebra \(H[\mathcal G]\) which has a combinatorial description in terms of a finite directed graph \(\mathcal G\) that depends on the choice of a generator \(M\) of \(\mathcal C\) and on the fusion coefficients of \(\mathcal C\). The algebra underlying \(H[\mathcal G]\) is the path algebra of the quiver \(\mathcal G\times\mathcal G\), and so the composability of paths in \(\mathcal G\) parameterizes the truncation of the tensor product of \(\mathcal C\). The ideal \(I\) is generated by two types of relations. The first type enforces that the tensor powers of the generator \(M\) have the appropriate endomorphism algebras, thus providing a Schur-Weyl dual description of \(\mathcal C\). If \(\mathcal C\) is braided, this includes relations of the form `\(RTT=TTR\)' where \(R\) contains the coefficients of the braiding on \(\omega M\otimes\omega M\), a generalization of the construction of Faddeev-Reshetikhin-Takhtajan to weak bialgebras. The second type of relations removes a suitable set of group-like elements in order to make the category of finite-dimensional comodules equivalent to \(\mathcal C\) over all tensor powers of the generator \(M\). As examples, we treat the modular categories associated with \(U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_2)\).