A note on the composition product of symmetric sequences (Q691258)

One useful viewpoint on operads in a closed symmetric monoidal category \(\mathcal C\) is to regard them as monoid objects in the category of symmetric sequences in \(\mathcal C\). However, the assumption that the symmetric monoidal category be closed is key for establishing that the composition product on symmetric sequences is associative. This assumption becomes particularly problematic when one works with cooperads, viewed as operads in \(\mathcal C^{\mathrm{op}}\), since the property of being closed is often not preserved by passing to the opposite category. In this paper, it is shown that under the weaker assumption of having a normal oplax monoidal structure, the composition product can still be defined. Because this structure still holds in key examples, it allows more examples of operads (and cooperads) to be considered as monoid objects. Of particular importance is the consequence that the bar construction can still be defined in this less restricted setting.