Composition of bispans of $G$-sets and plethysm

Abstract

Let $P(G)$ be the Grothendieck ring of the semiring of endomorphisms of the point in the $1$-category of bispans of finite $G$-sets for a finite group $G$. This is the bispan analogue of the Burnside ring of $G$. The ring $P(G)$ admits a third operation from composition of bispans. We produce a character map for $P(G)$ landing in a plethory built out of polynomial rings and the poset of conjugacy classes of subgroups of $G$. We prove that the character map sends composition of bispans to the plethysm operation -- which is a generalization of composition of polynomials.