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Graphs for Juncture

An alternative foundation for 2-categories is explored by studying graph-theoretically a partial operation on 2-cells named juncture, which can replace vertical and horizontal composition. Juncture is a generalized vertical composition of 2-cells that need not involve the whole target and the whole source; it may involve them only partly, provided the result is again a 2-cell. Since commuting diagrams of arrows of ordinary categories may be conceived as invertible 2-cells, this study concerns ordinary category theory too. The operation of juncture has a connection with proof theory, where it corresponds to a kind of cut rule on sequents, and it is related also to an operation on which the notion of operad can be based. The main achievement of the work is a detailed description of the specific planarity involved in juncture and graphs of 2-cells, comparable to the usual combinatorial characterizations of planarity in graph theory. This work points out to an alternative foundation for bicategories, i.e. weak 2-categories, and more generally weak n-categories.