On unitary 2-representations of finite groups and topological quantum field theory

Understand

This thesis contains various results on unitary 2-representations of finite groups and their 2-characters, as well as on pivotal structures for fusion categories.

• The motivation is extended topological quantum field theory (TQFT), where the 2-category of unitary 2-representations of a finite group is thought of as the `2-category assigned to the point' in the untwisted finite group model.
• The first result is that the braided monoidal category of transformations of the identity on the 2-category of unitary 2-representations of a finite group computes as the category of conjugation equivariant vector bundles over the group equipped with the fusion tensor product.
• This result is consistent with the extended TQFT hypotheses of Baez and Dolan, since it establishes that the category assigned to the circle can be obtained as the `higher trace of the identity' of the 2-category assigned to the point.