This is an expanded version of the notes by the second author of the lectures on symmetric tensor categories given by the first author at Ohio State University in March 2019 and later at ICRA-2020 in November 2020. We review some aspects of the current state of the theory of symmetric tensor categories and discuss their applications, including ones unavailable in the literature.
We compute the group of braided tensor autoequivalences and the Brauer-Picard group of the representation category of the small quantum group $mathfrak{u}_q(mathfrak{g})$, where $q$ is a root of unity.
A fundamental theorem of P. Deligne (2002) states that a pre-Tannakian category over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero admits a fiber functor to the category of supervector spaces (i.e., is the representation category of an affine proalgebraic supergroup) if and only if it has moderate growth (i.e., the lengths of tensor powers of an object grow at most exponentially). In this paper we prove a characteristic p version of this theorem. Namely we show that a pre-Tannakian category over an algebraically closed field of characteristic p>0 admits a fiber functor into the Verlinde category Ver_p (i.e., is the representation category of an affine group scheme in Ver_p) if and only if it has moderate growth and is Frobenius exact. This implies that Frobenius exact pre-Tannakian categories of moderate growth admit a well-behaved notion of Frobenius-Perron dimension. It follows that any semisimple pre-Tannakian category of moderate growth has a fiber functor to Ver_p (so in particular Delignes theorem holds on the nose for semisimple pre-Tannakian categories in characteristics 2,3). This settles a conjecture of the third author from 2015. In particular, this result applies to semisimplifications of categories of modular representations of finite groups (or, more generally, affine group schemes), which gives new applications to classical modular representation theory. For example, it allows us to characterize, for a modular representation V, the possible growth rates of the number of indecomposable summands in V^{otimes n} of dimension prime to p.
We classify braided tensor categories over C of exponential growth which are quasisymmetric, i.e., the squared braiding is the identity on the product of any two simple objects. This generalizes the classification results of Deligne on symmetric categories of exponential growth, and of Drinfeld on quasitriangular quasi-Hopf algebras. In particular, we classify braided categories of exponential growth which are unipotent, i.e., those whose only simple object is the unit object. We also classify fiber functors on such categories. Finally, using the Etingof-Kazhdan quantization theory of Poisson algebraic groups, we give a classification of coconnected Hopf algebras, i.e. of unipotent categories of exponential growth with a fiber functor.
We show any slightly degenerate weakly group-theoretical fusion category admits a minimal extension. Let $d$ be a positive square-free integer, given a weakly group-theoretical non-degenerate fusion category $mathcal{C}$, assume that $text{FPdim}(mathcal{C})=nd$ and $(n,d)=1$. If $(text{FPdim}(X)^2,d)=1$ for all simple objects $X$ of $mathcal{C}$, then we show that $mathcal{C}$ contains a non-degenerate fusion subcategory $mathcal{C}(mathbb{Z}_d,q)$. In particular, we obtain that integral fusion categories of FP-dimensions $p^md$ such that $mathcal{C}subseteq text{sVec}$ are nilpotent and group-theoretical, where $p$ is a prime and $(p,d)=1$.
We classify various types of graded extensions of a finite braided tensor category $cal B$ in terms of its $2$-categorical Picard groups. In particular, we prove that braided extensions of $cal B$ by a finite group $A$ correspond to braided monoidal $2$-functors from $A$ to the braided $2$-categorical Picard group of $cal B$ (consisting of invertible central $cal B$-module categories). Such functors can be expressed in terms of the Eilnberg-Mac~Lane cohomology. We describe in detail braided $2$-categorical Picard groups of symmetric fusion categories and of pointed braided fusion categories.