#### Volume 18, issue 5 (2018)

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On the commutative algebra of categories

### John D Berman

Algebraic & Geometric Topology 18 (2018) 2963–3012
##### Abstract

We discuss what it means for a symmetric monoidal category to be a module over a commutative semiring category. Each of the categories of (1) cartesian monoidal categories, (2) semiadditive categories, and (3) connective spectra can be recovered in this way as categories of modules over a commutative semiring category (or $\infty$–category in the last case). This language provides a simultaneous generalization of the formalism of algebraic theories (operads, PROPs, Lawvere theories) and stable homotopy theory, with essentially a variant of algebraic K–theory bridging between the two.