Symmetric monoidal structure with local character is a property

Abstract

In previous work we proved that, for categories of free finite-dimensional modules over a commutative semiring, linear compact-closed symmetric monoidal structure is a property, rather than a structure. That is, if there is such a structure, then it is uniquely defined (up to monoidal equivalence). Here we provide a novel unifying category-theoretic notion of symmetric monoidal structure with local character, which we prove to be a property for a much broader spectrum of categorical examples, including the infinite-dimensional case of relations over a quantale and the non-free case of finitely generated modules over a principal ideal domain.