Torsion Products of Modules Over the Orbit Category

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to extend Sanders Mac Lane's formulation of the torsion product as equivalence classes of projective chain complexes in the setting of modules over a ring to the setting of modules over small categories. The motivation to extend the definition was with a specific view to the orbit category. The main difficulty was in defining an appropriate dual for modules over small categories. During the course of our investigation it was discovered that modules over small categories can be formulated as modules over a matrix ring without losing any of the key features.