Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
We study unitary quotients of the free product unitary pivotal category ${{A}_{2}}\,*\,{{T}_{2}}$. We show that such quotients are parametrized by an integer $n\,\ge \,1$ and an $2n$–th root of unity $\omega $. We show that for $n\,=\,1,\,2,\,3$, there is exactly one quotient and $\omega \,=\,1$. For $4\,\le \,n\,\le \,10$, we show that there are no such quotients. Our methods also apply to quotients of ${{T}_{2}}\,*\,{{T}_{2}}$, where we have a similar result.
The essence of our method is a consistency check on jellyfish relations. While we only treat the specific cases of ${{A}_{2}}\,*\,{{T}_{2}}$ and ${{T}_{2}}\,*\,{{T}_{2}}$, we anticipate that our technique can be extended to a general method for proving the nonexistence of planar algebras with a specified principal graph.
During the preparation of this manuscript, we learnt of Liu's independent result on composites of ${{A}_{3}}$ and ${{A}_{4}}$ subfactor planar algebras (arxiv:1308.5691). In 1994, Bisch–Haagerup showed that the principal graph of a composite of ${{A}_{3}}$ and ${{A}_{4}}$ must fit into a certain family, and Liu has classified all such subfactor planar algebras. We explain the connection between the quotient categories and the corresponding composite subfactor planar algebras. As a corollary of Liu's result, there are no such quotient categories for $n\,\ge \,4$.
This is an abridged version of arxiv:1308.5723.