Monoidal Category Theory: Unifying Concepts in Mathematics, Physics, and Computing - Hardcover

Yanofsky, Noson S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262049392 ISBN 13: 9780262049399

Publisher: The MIT Press, 2024

Synopsis

A comprehensive, cutting-edge, and highly readable textbook that makes category theory and monoidal category theory accessible to students across the sciences.

Category theory is a powerful framework that began in mathematics but has since expanded to encompass several areas of computing and science, with broad applications in many fields. In this comprehensive text, Noson Yanofsky makes category theory accessible to those without a background in advanced mathematics. Monoidal Category Theorydemonstrates the expansive uses of categories, and in particular monoidal categories, throughout the sciences. The textbook starts from the basics of category theory and progresses to cutting edge research. Each idea is defined in simple terms and then brought alive by many real-world examples before progressing to theorems and uncomplicated proofs. Richly guided exercises ground readers in concrete computation and application. The result is a highly readable and engaging textbook that will open the world of category theory to many. 
 
 
 
 

• Makes category theory accessible to non-math majors
• Uses easy-to-understand language and emphasizes diagrams over equations
• Incremental, iterative approach eases students into advanced concepts
• A series of embedded mini-courses cover such popular topics as quantum computing, categorical logic, self-referential paradoxes, databases and scheduling, and knot theory
• Extensive exercises and examples demonstrate the broad range of applications of categorical structures 
• Modular structure allows instructors to fit text to the needs of different courses 
• Instructor resources include slides

                                     *****

Yanofsky introduces category theory in a delightfully simple and clear way, focusing on categories where you can multiply objects, and showing their immense power in logic, knot theory, quantum computation and diverse other fields.

John Baez, Professor of the Graduate Division, U.C. Riverside, coauthor of Towards Higher Categories

                                     *****

Category theory books are notoriously difficult, but this book is friendly and application-oriented. It is a fascinating journey through the beautiful landscape of mathematics and its neighbors, computing and science.


Cristian S. Calude, Professor, University of Auckland, author of Information and Randomness: An Algorithmic Perspective

                                    *****

The author's joy of monoidal categories bubbles from the pages. The book unlocks, to a more inclusive audience than any before, a widely applied and theoretically expressive subject.

Ross Street, Emeritus Professor, Centre of Australian Category Theory, Macquarie University, N.S.W. Australia, author of Quantum Groups

About this title

About the Author

Noson S. Yanofsky is Professor of Computer and Information Science at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, and author, most recently, of Theoretical Computer Science for the Working Category Theorist, among other books.

Edition details

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262049392
• ISBN 13: 9780262049399
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 672