The rank of a quiver representation. (Q952546)

Let \(K\) be a field and let \(Q,Q'\) be quivers. Denote by \(\text{Rep}_K(Q)\) the category of finite dimensional \(K\)-representations of \(Q\). In the paper the author studies `tensor functors' \(F\colon\text{Rep}_K(Q)\to\text{Rep}_K(Q')\) (i.e. functors satisfying the following properties: \(F(V\oplus W)\cong F(V)\oplus F(W)\), \(F(V\otimes W)\cong F(V)\otimes F(W)\) and \(F(\mathbb{I}_Q)\cong\mathbb{I}_{Q'}\), where \(\mathbb{I}_Q\) is the identity representation of \(Q\)). A tensor functor \(F\colon\text{Rep}_K(Q)\to\text{Rep}_K(\mathbb{A}_1)\) is called a `rank functor' of \(Q\). A tensor functor \(F\colon\text{Rep}_K(Q)\to\text{Rep}_K(Q')\) induces a~ring homomorphism \(f\colon R(Q)\to R(Q')\), where \(R(Q)\) is the representation ring of \(Q\). Since \(R(\mathbb{A}_1)\cong\mathbb{Z}\), a~rank functor \(F\colon\text{Rep}_K(Q)\to\text{Rep}_K(\mathbb{A}_1)\) induces a~ring homomorphism \(f\colon R(Q)\to\mathbb{Z}\), that gives numerical invariants of quiver representations. In the paper there is defined a~functor \(\mathcal R_Q\colon\text{Rep}_K(Q)\to\text{Rep}_K(Q)\) and the following theorem is proved. Theorem. Let \(V\) be a~representation of a~connected quiver \(Q\). The functor \(\mathcal R_Q\) has the following properties: (a) \(\mathcal R_Q\) is a~tensor functor and commutes with duality. (b) For every arrow \(a\) of \(Q\), \((\mathcal R_QV)_a\) is an~isomorphism. (c) When \(Q\) is a~tree, \(\mathcal R_QV\) is isomorphic to a~direct summand of \(V\). -- The condition (b) of Theorem allows to define global rank functor on \(Q\) by: \(\text{rank}_Q:=\text{Im}_{\varepsilon_x}\circ\mathcal R_Q\), whose isomorphism class is independent of \(x\) (here \(\text{Im}_{\varepsilon_x}(V)=V_x\) for any representation \(V\)).