Enriched monoidal categories I: Centers

This work is the first one in a series, in which we develop a mathematical theory of enriched (braided) monoidal categories and their representations. In this work, we introduce the notion of the E₀ -center (E₁ -center or E₂ -center) of an enriched (monoidal or braided monoidal) category, and compute the centers explicitly when the enriched (braided monoidal or monoidal) categories are obtained from the canonical constructions. These centers have important applications in the mathematical theory of gapless and gapped boundaries of topological phases. They also play very important roles in the higher representation theory, which is the focus of the second work in the series.