(Op)lax natural transformations, twisted quantum field theories, and “even higher” Morita categories

© 2016 Elsevier Inc. Motivated by the challenge of defining twisted quantum field theories in the context of higher categories, we develop a general framework for lax and oplax transformations and their higher analogs between strong (∞,n)-functors. We construct a double (∞,n)-category built out of the target (∞,n)-category governing the desired diagrammatics. We define (op)lax transformations as functors into parts thereof, and an (op)lax twisted field theory to be a symmetric monoidal (op)lax natural transformation between field theories. We verify that lax trivially-twisted relative field theories are the same as absolute field theories. As a second application, we extend the higher Morita category of E d -algebras in a symmetric monoidal (∞,n)-category C to an (∞,n+d)-category using the higher morphisms in C.