Tortile Yang-Baxter operators in tensor categories (Q802741)

The relationship between the theories of knots and categories began with \textit{D. Yetter}'s definition of the category of tangles [``Markov algebras'', Contemp. Math. 78, 705-730 (1988; Zbl 0665.57004)] and the authors' notion of braided tensor category [``Braided monoidal categories'', Macquarie Mathematics Reports 850067 (December 1985)]. Then \textit{P. Freyd} and \textit{D. Yetter} [``Braided compact closed categories with applications to low dimensional topology'', Adv. Math. 77, 156-182 (1989; Zbl 0679.57003)] noticed the relevance of dual objects, \textit{V. G. Turaev} [``The Yang-Baxter equations and invariants of links'', Invent. Math. 92, 527-553 (1988; Zbl 0648.57003)] made the connexion with the Yang-Baxter equation, the authors introduced balanced and tortile tensor categories to relate to framed braids and links, and \textit{M. C. Shum} [``Tortile tensor categories'', PhD Thesis (Macquarie University, 1989)] proved the freeness of the tortile tensor category of framed tangles (or, tangles on ribbons). The present paper gives a purely algebraic proof that the free tortile tensor category is also the free tensor category containing an object equipped with a ``tortile'' Yang-Baxter operator. For related ideas see the authors' expository article [``An introduction to Tannaka duality and quantum groups'', Proc. Conf. Category Theory at Lake Como (Italy, 1990), to appear].