A theory of induction and classification of tensor \(C^\ast\)-categories (Q692848)

Summary: This paper addresses the problem of describing the structure of tensor \(C^\ast\)-categories \(\mathcal{M}\) with conjugates and irreducible tensor unit. No assumption on the existence of a braided symmetry or on amenability is made. Our assumptions are motivated by the remark that these categories often contain non-full tensor \(C^\ast\)-subcategories with conjugates and the same objects admitting an embedding into Hilbert spaces. Such an embedding defines a compact quantum group by Woronowicz duality. An important example is the Temperley-Lieb category canonically contained in a tensor \(C^\ast\)-category generated by a single real or pseudoreal object of dimension \(\geq 2\). The associated quantum groups are the universal orthogonal quantum groups of \textit{A. Van Daele} and \textit{S.-Z. Wang} [Int. J. Math. 7, No.~2, 255--263 (1996; Zbl 0870.17011)]. Our main result asserts that there is a full and faithful tensor functor from \(\mathcal{M}\) to a category of Hilbert bimodule representations of the compact quantum group. In the classical case, these bimodule representations reduce to the \(G\)-equivariant Hermitian bundles over compact homogeneous \(G\)-spaces, with \(G\) a compact group. Our structural results shed light on the problem of whether there is an embedding functor of \(\mathcal{M}\) into the Hilbert spaces. We show that this is related to the problem of whether a classical compact Lie group can act ergodically on a non-type I von Neumann algebra. In particular, combining this with a result of \textit{A. Wassermann} [Invent. Math. 93, No.~2, 309--354 (1988; Zbl 0692.46058)] shows that an embedding exists if \(\mathcal{M}\) is generated by a pseudoreal object of dimension~\(2\).