For any locally cartesian closed category E, we prove that a local fibered
right adjoint between slices of E is given by a polynomial. The slices in
question are taken in a well known fibered sense.
We explore the relationship between polynomial functors and (rooted) trees.
In the first part we use polynomial functors to derive a new convenient
formalism for trees, and obtain a natural and conceptual construction of the
category $\Omega$ of Moerdijk and Weiss; its main properties are described in
terms of some factorisation systems. Although the constructions are motivated
and explained in terms of polynomial functors, they all amount to elementary
manipulations with finite sets.
We describe a category of Feynman graphs and show how it relates to compact
symmetric multicategories (coloured modular operads) just as linear orders
relate to categories and rooted trees relate to multicategories. More
specifically we obtain the following nerve theorem: compact symmetric
multicategories can be characterised as presheaves on the category of Feynman
graphs subject to a Segal condition. This text is a write-up of the
second-named author's QPL6 talk; a more detailed account of this material will
appear elsewhere.