nLab intertwiner (Rev #4, changes)

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Idea

The In termrepresentation theory, the term intertwiner is a synonym for homomorphism of representations/actions/modules.

Notably for linear representations ρ 1\rho_1, ρ 2\rho_2 of some group or associative algebra AA on vector spaces (or more generalV 1,V 2V_1, V_2modules , ) aV 1,V 2V_1, V_2, a linear map u::V 1→V 2 u : \colon V_1 \to V_2 is said to intertwine ρ 1\rho_1 with ρ 2\rho_2 if for all a∈Aa \in A we have that

u∘ρ 1(a)=ρ 2(a)∘u . , u \circ \rho_1(a) = \;=\; \rho_2(a)\circ u \,. \,,

which equivalently means that this diagram commutes:

\begin{tikzcd} V_1 \ar[r, { u }] \ar[d, { \rho_1(a) }{description}] & V_2 \ar[d, { \rho_2(a) }{description}] \ V_1 \ar[r, { u }] & V_2 \end{tikzcd}

With the representations understood as functors (cf. at action)

ρ i:BA⟶Mod \rho_i \;\colon\; \mathbf{B}A \longrightarrow Mod

from the delooping groupoid (for AA a group) or delooping 𝒱\mathscr{V}-enriched category (for AA a monoid object in a symmetric monoidal category 𝒱\mathscr{V}) to a suitable category of modules, these are (as aa ranges) just the naturality squares exhibiting equivalently an (enriched) natural transformation u:ρ 1⇒ρ 2u \,\colon\,\rho_1 \Rightarrow \rho_2 between these functors:

\begin{tikzcd} \mathbf{B}A \ar[r, bend left=25, { \rho_1 }{description, pos=.4}, {\ }{name=s, swap}] \ar[r, bend right=25, { \rho_2 }{description, pos=.4}, {\ }{name=t}] \ar[from=s, to=t, Rightarrow, { u }] & \mathrlap{ \mathrm{Mod} } \[-20pt] \ast \ar[d, { a }] \ar[r, phantom, { \mapsto }] & V_1 \ar[r, { u }] \ar[d, { \rho_1(a) }{description}] & V_2 \ar[d, { \rho_2(a) }{description}] \ \ast \ar[r, phantom, { \mapsto }] & V_1 \ar[r, { u }] & V_2 \end{tikzcd}

Revision on April 2, 2025 at 15:58:19 by Urs Schreiber See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.