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Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Super-Preadditive Sketches and the Koszul Tensor Product

 

Super-Preadditive Sketches and the Koszul Tensor Product

1. Motivation

Ordinary preadditive sketches are small categories enriched over

Ab.

Their tensor product gives commuting interchange laws. In particular, if ChSk is the preadditive sketch for chain complexes, then

ChSkChSk

gives a sketch for commuting bicomplexes:

dvdh=dhdv.

However, the double complexes used in homological algebra usually satisfy the anticommuting relation

dvdh+dhdv=0.

Equivalently,

dvdh=dhdv.

This sign is not visible in the ordinary tensor product of preadditive sketches. To encode it structurally, we pass from Ab-enrichment to super Ab-enrichment.


2. Super abelian groups

Let

SAb

denote the category of super abelian groups, that is, Z/2-graded abelian groups

A=A0¯A1¯.

A homogeneous element aA has degree

|a|Z/2.

The tensor product is the usual graded tensor product:

(AB)r¯=p¯+q¯=r¯Ap¯Bq¯.

The unit object is

Z

concentrated in degree 0¯.

The symmetric braiding is the Koszul braiding

τA,B:ABBA,

given on homogeneous elements by

τA,B(ab)=(1)|a||b|ba.

Thus SAb is a symmetric monoidal category.


3. Super-preadditive sketches

A super-preadditive sketch is a small SAb-enriched category.

Thus a super-preadditive sketch S consists of:

  1. a set of objects;

  2. for each pair s,s, a super abelian group

    S(s,s);
  3. composition morphisms in SAb

    S(s,s)S(s,s)S(s,s);
  4. unit morphisms

    ZS(s,s).

Composition is degree-preserving. Thus if f and g are homogeneous and composable, then

|gf|=|g|+|f|.

The identity morphisms are even:

|1s|=0.

As before, we are still considering cone-free sketches. The new feature is not the presence of cones or cocones, but the presence of parity.


4. Forgetting parity

There is a forgetful operation

Und:SAb-CatAb-Cat.

It sends a super-preadditive sketch S to the ordinary preadditive sketch Und(S) with the same objects and Hom groups

Und(S)(s,s)=S(s,s)0¯S(s,s)1¯.

This point matters.

If A is an ordinary additive category, we usually do not view it as a super category concentrated in even degree when interpreting chain-complex sketches with odd differentials. If we did that, every odd generator would have to map to zero.

Instead, for ordinary additive semantics, we use

Und(S)

and define an S-model in A as an additive functor

Und(S)A.

Thus parity is a syntactic device used to construct the correct signed relations. After the signed sketch has been constructed, one may forget parity and take ordinary additive models.


5. Koszul tensor product of super-preadditive sketches

Let S and T be super-preadditive sketches. Their Koszul tensor product

S^T

is defined as follows.

The objects are pairs

(s,t).

The Hom supergroup is

(S^T)((s,t),(s,t))=S(s,s)T(t,t).

The composition is defined using the Koszul braiding. Structurally, it is the composite

(S(s,s)T(t,t))(S(s,s)T(t,t))(S(s,s)S(s,s))(T(t,t)T(t,t))S(s,s)T(t,t).

The first arrow uses the Koszul braiding to move

T(t,t)

past

S(s,s).

In element notation, for homogeneous morphisms,

(f2g2)(f1g1)=(1)|g2||f1|(f2f1)(g2g1).

The identity on (s,t) is

1(s,t)=1s1t.

When all morphisms are even, the sign disappears and this reduces to the ordinary tensor product of preadditive sketches.


6. Koszul interchange law

Let

f:ss

be a homogeneous morphism in S, and let

g:tt

be a homogeneous morphism in T.

Inside

S^T,

we have the two morphisms

f1t:(s,t)(s,t)

and

1sg:(s,t)(s,t).

Compare the two composites around the square

(s,t)f1t(s,t)1sg1sg(s,t)f1t(s,t).

One path gives

(1sg)(f1t)=(1)|f||g|(fg).

The other path gives

(f1t)(1sg)=fg.

Therefore

(1sg)(f1t)=(1)|f||g|(f1t)(1sg).

This is the Koszul interchange law.

If f and g are both odd, then

(1)|f||g|=1,

and the square anticommutes.


7. Internal Hom

Let T and U be super-preadditive sketches. Define

[T,U]

as follows.

The objects are even SAb-enriched functors

F:TU.

For two such functors F,G, the Hom supergroup is the super abelian group of graded natural transformations

FG.

Equivalently, it is the enriched end

[T,U](F,G)=tTU(Ft,Gt).

Concretely, a homogeneous element

η[T,U](F,G)

of degree rZ/2 is a family of homogeneous morphisms

ηt:FtGt

of degree r, satisfying the graded naturality condition

G(a)ηt=(1)r|a|ηtF(a)

for every homogeneous morphism

a:tt

in T.

Addition is pointwise, and composition is pointwise:

(θη)t=θtηt.

This makes

[T,U]

into a super-preadditive sketch.


8. Tensor--Hom adjunction

The Koszul tensor product satisfies the tensor--Hom adjunction

SPreAdd(S^T,U)SPreAdd(S,[T,U]).

Here SPreAdd denotes the category of small super-preadditive sketches and even enriched functors.

Thus the category of small super-preadditive sketches is monoidal closed.


9. Proof of the tensor--Hom adjunction

Let

H:S^TU

be an even enriched functor.

We construct

H~:S[T,U].

For each object sS, define

H~(s):TU

by

H~(s)(t)=H(s,t),

and

H~(s)(g)=H(1sg).

Now let

f:ss

be a homogeneous morphism in S. Define a homogeneous natural transformation

H~(f):H~(s)H~(s)

of degree |f| by

H~(f)t=H(f1t).

We verify graded naturality. Let

g:tt

be homogeneous. We need

H~(s)(g)H~(f)t=(1)|f||g|H~(f)tH~(s)(g).

The left-hand side is

H(1sg)H(f1t)=H((1sg)(f1t)).

By the Koszul interchange law,

(1sg)(f1t)=(1)|f||g|(f1t)(1sg).

Therefore

H~(s)(g)H~(f)t=(1)|f||g|H((f1t)(1sg)).

This is

(1)|f||g|H~(f)tH~(s)(g).

So H~(f) is a graded natural transformation.

Hence

H~:S[T,U]

is an even enriched functor.


Conversely, suppose we have an even enriched functor

K:S[T,U].

We construct

K^:S^TU.

On objects, define

K^(s,t)=K(s)(t).

Let

f:ss

and

g:tt

be homogeneous morphisms. Define

K^(fg)=K(f)tK(s)(g).

This is the “vertical first, then horizontal” formula.

By graded naturality of

K(f):K(s)K(s),

we have

K(s)(g)K(f)t=(1)|f||g|K(f)tK(s)(g).

Hence equivalently,

K^(fg)=(1)|f||g|K(s)(g)K(f)t.

The construction is bilinear and degree-preserving, so it extends to all Hom supergroups.

Now check composition. Let

f1:s0s1,f2:s1s2

be homogeneous morphisms in S, and let

g1:t0t1,g2:t1t2

be homogeneous morphisms in T.

Then

(f2g2)(f1g1)=(1)|g2||f1|(f2f1)(g2g1).

On the other hand,

K^(f2g2)K^(f1g1)

equals

(K(f2)t2K(s1)(g2))(K(f1)t1K(s0)(g1)).

Using graded naturality of K(f1), we have

K(s1)(g2)K(f1)t1=(1)|f1||g2|K(f1)t2K(s0)(g2).

Therefore

K^(f2g2)K^(f1g1)=(1)|f1||g2|K(f2)t2K(f1)t2K(s0)(g2)K(s0)(g1)=(1)|g2||f1|K(f2f1)t2K(s0)(g2g1)=K^((1)|g2||f1|(f2f1)(g2g1))=K^((f2g2)(f1g1)).

Thus K^ preserves composition. It also preserves identities, so it is an even enriched functor

K^:S^TU.

The two constructions

HH~

and

KK^

are inverse to each other, by direct inspection on objects and elementary tensors. Therefore

SPreAdd(S^T,U)SPreAdd(S,[T,U]).

This proves the tensor--Hom adjunction.


10. Example: anticommuting double complexes

Let

ChSksup

be the super-preadditive sketch generated by objects

nZ

and odd arrows

dn:nn1

subject to

dn1dn=0.

Now form

ChSksup^ChSksup.

Its objects are pairs

(p,q).

It has horizontal differentials

dh=dp1q

and vertical differentials

dv=1pdq.

First, going horizontally and then vertically gives

dvdh=(1p1dq)(dp1q).

By the Koszul composition rule,

(f2g2)(f1g1)=(1)|g2||f1|(f2f1)(g2g1).

Here

f2=1p1,g2=dq,f1=dp,g1=1q.

Since dp and dq are both odd, we get

(1)|g2||f1|=(1)|dq||dp|=(1)11=1.

Therefore

(1p1dq)(dp1q)=(dpdq).

On the other hand, going vertically and then horizontally gives

dhdv=(dp1q1)(1pdq).

Again using the Koszul composition rule, the sign is now

(1)|1q1||1p|=(1)00=1,

because identity morphisms are even. Hence

(dp1q1)(1pdq)=dpdq.

Thus

dvdh=(dpdq),

while

dhdv=dpdq.

Therefore

dvdh=dhdv.

So the anticommuting square in a double complex is exactly the Koszul interchange law applied to two odd differentials.

Equivalently,

dvdh+dhdv=0.

The two copies of d2=0 also give

(dh)2=0,

and

(dv)2=0.

Therefore

ChSksup^ChSksup

is the signed sketch for anticommuting double complexes.

If A is an ordinary additive category, an anticommuting double complex in A is an additive functor

Und(ChSksup^ChSksup)A.

Thus the super structure is used to generate the Koszul sign, and then the resulting signed preadditive sketch may be interpreted in an ordinary additive category.


anticommuting double complex=model of the Koszul tensor square of the chain-complex sketch.

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