Invariant rings through categories

Abstract

We formulate a notion of "geometric reductivity" in an abstract categorical setting which we refer to as adequacy. The main theorem states that the adequacy condition implies that the ring of invariants is finitely generated. This result applies to the category of modules over a bialgebra, the category of comodules over a bialgebra, and the category of quasi-coherent sheaves on an algebraic stack of finite type over an affine base.