Nested cobordisms, Cyl-objects and Temperley-Lieb algebras

Abstract

We introduce a discrete cobordism category for nested manifolds and nested cobordisms between them. A variation of stratified Morse theory applies in this case, and yields generators for a general nested cobordism category. Restricting to a low-dimensional example of the “striped cylinder” cobordism category Cyl, we give a complete set of relations for the generators. With an eye towards the study of TQFTs defined on a nested cobordism category, we describe functors $\mathrm{Cyl}\to C$, which we call Cyl-objects in $C$, and show that they are related to known algebraic structures such as Temperley-Lieb algebras and cyclic objects. We moreover define novel algebraic constructions inspired by the structure of Cyl-objects, namely a doubling construction on cyclic objects analogous to edgewise subdivision, and a cylindrical bar construction on self-dual objects in a monoidal category.