Monoidal structures on the categories of quadratic data

Abstract

The notion of 2--monoidal category used here was introduced by B.~Vallette in 2007 for applications in the operadic context. The starting point for this article was a remark by Yu. Manin that in the category of quadratic algebras (that is, "quantum linear spaces") one can also define 2--monoidal structure(s) with rather unusual properties. Here we give a detailed exposition of these constructions, together with their generalisations to the case of quadratic operads. Their parallel exposition was motivated by the following remark. Several important operads/cooperads such as genus zero quantum cohomology operad, the operad classifying Gerstenhaber algebras, and more generally, (co)operads of homology/cohomology of some topological operads, start with collections of quadratic algebras/coalgebras rather than simply linear spaces. Suggested here enrichments of the categories to which components of these operads belong, as well of the operadic structures themselves, might lead to the better understanding of these fundamental objects. New version includes minor editorial changes and new references.