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Let $\mathsf{Add}$ denote the (strict) 2-category of small additive categories and additive functors. Because categories of additive functors are itself additive, we have for each additive category $\mathcal{A}$ a covariant Hom-functor

$$\mathsf{Add}(\mathcal{A},-) : \mathsf{Add} \to \mathsf{Add} $$

in a 2-categorical sense, i.e. for each additive functor $F:\mathcal{B}\to\mathcal{C}$ we obtain an additive functor

$$F_*^\mathcal{A} : \mathsf{Add}(\mathcal{A},\mathcal{B}) \to \mathsf{Add}(\mathcal{A},\mathcal{C})$$

Does the functor $\mathsf{Add}(\mathcal{A},-)$ have a left adjoint in a 2-categorical sense? Does there exists for each additive category $\mathcal{B}$ an additive category "$\mathcal{B}\otimes\mathcal{A}$" such that we have for each additive category $\mathcal{C}$ a natural isomorphism (or at least an equivalence) of categories

$$\mathsf{Add}(\mathcal{B} \otimes \mathcal{A},\mathcal{C}) \cong \mathsf{Add}(\mathcal{B},\mathsf{Add}(\mathcal{A},\mathcal{C}))\quad ?$$

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Yes, additive categories are enriched in the category of abelian groups (or commutative monoids), which is a (co)complete monoidal closed category. I recommend you look at the construction of the hom-V-category and the tensor V-category in chapter 2 of Kelly’s Basic Concepts of Enriched Category Theory.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the reference! Can this be extended to abelian categories such that we can understand e.g. Ext as the derived functor of $Hom(-,-) : \mathcal{A}^\text{op}\otimes \mathcal{A} \to \mathsf{Ab}$? $\endgroup$
    – Lucina
    Jul 2, 2020 at 22:31
  • $\begingroup$ I'm not a homological algebraist, but based on nlab's page on Ext, maybe? $\endgroup$ Jul 3, 2020 at 16:24

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