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Wikipedia

Glossary of category theory

This is a glossary of properties and concepts in category theory in mathematics. (see also Outline of category theory.)

  • Notes on foundations: In many expositions (e.g., Vistoli), the set-theoretic issues are ignored; this means, for instance, that one does not distinguish between small and large categories and that one can arbitrarily form a localization of a category.[1] Like those expositions, this glossary also generally ignores the set-theoretic issues, except when they are relevant (e.g., the discussion on accessibility.)

Especially for higher categories, the concepts from algebraic topology are also used in the category theory. For that see also glossary of algebraic topology.

The notations and the conventions used throughout the article are:

  • [n] = {0, 1, 2, …, n}, which is viewed as a category (by writing .)
  • Cat, the category of (small) categories, where the objects are categories (which are small with respect to some universe) and the morphisms functors.
  • Fct(C, D), the functor category: the category of functors from a category C to a category D.
  • Set, the category of (small) sets.
  • sSet, the category of simplicial sets.
  • "weak" instead of "strict" is given the default status; e.g., "n-category" means "weak n-category", not the strict one, by default.
  • By an ∞-category, we mean a quasi-category, the most popular model, unless other models are being discussed.
  • The number zero 0 is a natural number.

A

abelian
A category is abelian if it has a zero object, it has all pullbacks and pushouts, and all monomorphisms and epimorphisms are normal.
accessible
1.  Given a cardinal number κ, an object X in a category is κ-accessible (or κ-compact or κ-presentable) if   commutes with κ-filtered colimits.
2.  Given a regular cardinal κ, a category is κ-accessible if it has κ-filtered colimits and there exists a small set S of κ-compact objects that generates the category under colimits, meaning every object can be written as a colimit of diagrams of objects in S.
additive
A category is additive if it is preadditive (to be precise, has some pre-additive structure) and admits all finite coproducts. Although "preadditive" is an additional structure, one can show "additive" is a property of a category; i.e., one can ask whether a given category is additive or not.[2]
adjunction
An adjunction (also called an adjoint pair) is a pair of functors F: CD, G: DC such that there is a "natural" bijection
 ;
F is said to be left adjoint to G and G to right adjoint to F. Here, "natural" means there is a natural isomorphism   of bifunctors (which are contravariant in the first variable.)
algebra for a monad
Given a monad T in a category X, an algebra for T or a T-algebra is an object in X with a monoid action of T ("algebra" is misleading and "T-object" is perhaps a better term.) For example, given a group G that determines a monad T in Set in the standard way, a T-algebra is a set with an action of G.
amnestic
A functor is amnestic if it has the property: if k is an isomorphism and F(k) is an identity, then k is an identity.

B

balanced
A category is balanced if every bimorphism is an isomorphism.
Beck's theorem
Beck's theorem characterizes the category of algebras for a given monad.
bicategory
A bicategory is a model of a weak 2-category.
bifunctor
A bifunctor from a pair of categories C and D to a category E is a functor C × DE. For example, for any category C,   is a bifunctor from Cop and C to Set.
bimonoidal
A bimonoidal category is a category with two monoidal structures, one distributing over the other.
bimorphism
A bimorphism is a morphism that is both an epimorphism and a monomorphism.
Bousfield localization
See Bousfield localization.

C

calculus of functors
The calculus of functors is a technique of studying functors in the manner similar to the way a function is studied via its Taylor series expansion; whence, the term "calculus".
cartesian closed
A category is cartesian closed if it has a terminal object and that any two objects have a product and exponential.
cartesian functor
Given relative categories   over the same base category C, a functor   over C is cartesian if it sends cartesian morphisms to cartesian morphisms.
cartesian morphism
1.  Given a functor π: CD (e.g., a prestack over schemes), a morphism f: xy in C is π-cartesian if, for each object z in C, each morphism g: zy in C and each morphism v: π(z) → π(x) in D such that π(g) = π(f) ∘ v, there exists a unique morphism u: zx such that π(u) = v and g = fu.
2.  Given a functor π: CD (e.g., a prestack over rings), a morphism f: xy in C is π-coCartesian if, for each object z in C, each morphism g: xz in C and each morphism v: π(y) → π(z) in D such that π(g) = v ∘ π(f), there exists a unique morphism u: yz such that π(u) = v and g = uf. (In short, f is the dual of a π-cartesian morphism.)
Cartesian square
A commutative diagram that is isomorphic to the diagram given as a fiber product.
categorical logic
Categorical logic is an approach to mathematical logic that uses category theory.
categorification
Categorification is a process of replacing sets and set-theoretic concepts with categories and category-theoretic concepts in some nontrivial way to capture categoric flavors. Decategorification is the reverse of categorification.
category
A category consists of the following data
  1. A class of objects,
  2. For each pair of objects X, Y, a set  , whose elements are called morphisms from X to Y,
  3. For each triple of objects X, Y, Z, a map (called composition)
     ,
  4. For each object X, an identity morphism  
subject to the conditions: for any morphisms  ,   and  ,
  •   and  .
For example, a partially ordered set can be viewed as a category: the objects are the elements of the set and for each pair of objects x, y, there is a unique morphism   if and only if  ; the associativity of composition means transitivity.
category of categories
The category of (small) categories, denoted by Cat, is a category where the objects are all the categories which are small with respect to some fixed universe and the morphisms are all the functors.
classifying space
The classifying space of a category C is the geometric realization of the nerve of C.
co-
Often used synonymous with op-; for example, a colimit refers to an op-limit in the sense that it is a limit in the opposite category. But there might be a distinction; for example, an op-fibration is not the same thing as a cofibration.
coend
The coend of a functor   is the dual of the end of F and is denoted by
 .
For example, if R is a ring, M a right R-module and N a left R-module, then the tensor product of M and N is
 
where R is viewed as a category with one object whose morphisms are the elements of R.
coequalizer
The coequalizer of a pair of morphisms   is the colimit of the pair. It is the dual of an equalizer.
coherence theorem
A coherence theorem is a theorem of a form that states a weak structure is equivalent to a strict structure.
coimage
The coimage of a morphism f: XY is the coequalizer of  .
colored operad
Another term for multicategory, a generalized category where a morphism can have several domains. The notion of "colored operad" is more primitive than that of operad: in fact, an operad can be defined as a colored operad with a single object.
comma
Given functors  , the comma category   is a category where (1) the objects are morphisms   and (2) a morphism from   to   consists of   and   such that   is   For example, if f is the identity functor and g is the constant functor with a value b, then it is the slice category of B over an object b.
comonad
A comonad in a category X is a comonoid in the monoidal category of endofunctors of X.
compact
Probably synonymous with #accessible.
complete
A category is complete if all small limits exist.
composition
1.  A composition of morphisms in a category is part of the datum defining the category.
2.  If   are functors, then the composition   or   is the functor defined by: for an object x and a morphism u in C,  .
3.  Natural transformations are composed pointwise: if   are natural transformations, then   is the natural transformation given by  .
concrete
A concrete category C is a category such that there is a faithful functor from C to Set; e.g., Vec, Grp and Top.
cone
A cone is a way to express the universal property of a colimit (or dually a limit). One can show[3] that the colimit   is the left adjoint to the diagonal functor  , which sends an object X to the constant functor with value X; that is, for any X and any functor  ,
 
provided the colimit in question exists. The right-hand side is then the set of cones with vertex X.[4]
connected
A category is connected if, for each pair of objects x, y, there exists a finite sequence of objects zi such that   and either   or   is nonempty for any i.
conservative functor
A conservative functor is a functor that reflects isomorphisms. Many forgetful functors are conservative, but the forgetful functor from Top to Set is not conservative.
constant
A functor is constant if it maps every object in a category to the same object A and every morphism to the identity on A. Put in another way, a functor   is constant if it factors as:   for some object A in D, where i is the inclusion of the discrete category { A }.
contravariant functor
A contravariant functor F from a category C to a category D is a (covariant) functor from Cop to D. It is sometimes also called a presheaf especially when D is Set or the variants. For example, for each set S, let   be the power set of S and for each function  , define
 
by sending a subset A of T to the pre-image  . With this,   is a contravariant functor.
coproduct
The coproduct of a family of objects Xi in a category C indexed by a set I is the inductive limit   of the functor  , where I is viewed as a discrete category. It is the dual of the product of the family. For example, a coproduct in Grp is a free product.
core
The core of a category is the maximal groupoid contained in the category.

D

Day convolution
Given a group or monoid M, the Day convolution is the tensor product in  .[5]
density theorem
The density theorem states that every presheaf (a set-valued contravariant functor) is a colimit of representable presheaves. Yoneda's lemma embeds a category C into the category of presheaves on C. The density theorem then says the image is "dense", so to say. The name "density" is because of the analogy with the Jacobson density theorem (or other variants) in abstract algebra.
diagonal functor
Given categories I, C, the diagonal functor is the functor
 
that sends each object A to the constant functor with value A and each morphism   to the natural transformation   that is f at each i.
diagram
Given a category C, a diagram in C is a functor   from a small category I.
differential graded category
A differential graded category is a category whose Hom sets are equipped with structures of differential graded modules. In particular, if the category has only one object, it is the same as a differential graded module.
direct limit
A direct limit is the colimit of a direct system.
discrete
A category is discrete if each morphism is an identity morphism (of some object). For example, a set can be viewed as a discrete category.
distributor
Another term for "profunctor".
Dwyer–Kan equivalence
A Dwyer–Kan equivalence is a generalization of an equivalence of categories to the simplicial context.[6]

E

Eilenberg–Moore category
Another name for the category of algebras for a given monad.
empty
The empty category is a category with no object. It is the same thing as the empty set when the empty set is viewed as a discrete category.
end
The end of a functor   is the limit
 
where   is the category (called the subdivision category of C) whose objects are symbols   for all objects c and all morphisms u in C and whose morphisms are   and   if   and where   is induced by F so that   would go to   and   would go to  . For example, for functors  ,
 
is the set of natural transformations from F to G. For more examples, see this mathoverflow thread. The dual of an end is a coend.
endofunctor
A functor between the same category.
enriched category
Given a monoidal category (C, ⊗, 1), a category enriched over C is, informally, a category whose Hom sets are in C. More precisely, a category D enriched over C is a data consisting of
  1. A class of objects,
  2. For each pair of objects X, Y in D, an object   in C, called the mapping object from X to Y,
  3. For each triple of objects X, Y, Z in D, a morphism in C,
     ,
    called the composition,
  4. For each object X in D, a morphism   in C, called the unit morphism of X
subject to the conditions that (roughly) the compositions are associative and the unit morphisms act as the multiplicative identity. For example, a category enriched over sets is an ordinary category.
epimorphism
A morphism f is an epimorphism if   whenever  . In other words, f is the dual of a monomorphism.
equalizer
The equalizer of a pair of morphisms   is the limit of the pair. It is the dual of a coequalizer.
equivalence
1.  A functor is an equivalence if it is faithful, full and essentially surjective.
2.  A morphism in an ∞-category C is an equivalence if it gives an isomorphism in the homotopy category of C.
equivalent
A category is equivalent to another category if there is an equivalence between them.
essentially surjective
A functor F is called essentially surjective (or isomorphism-dense) if for every object B there exists an object A such that F(A) is isomorphic to B.
evaluation
Given categories C, D and an object A in C, the evaluation at A is the functor
 
For example, the Eilenberg–Steenrod axioms give an instance when the functor is an equivalence.

F

faithful
A functor is faithful if it is injective when restricted to each hom-set.
fundamental category
The fundamental category functor   is the left adjoint to the nerve functor N. For every category C,  .
fundamental groupoid
The fundamental groupoid   of a Kan complex X is the category where an object is a 0-simplex (vertex)  , a morphism is a homotopy class of a 1-simplex (path)   and a composition is determined by the Kan property.
fibered category
A functor π: CD is said to exhibit C as a category fibered over D if, for each morphism g: x → π(y) in D, there exists a π-cartesian morphism f: x'y in C such that π(f) = g. If D is the category of affine schemes (say of finite type over some field), then π is more commonly called a prestack. Note: π is often a forgetful functor and in fact the Grothendieck construction implies that every fibered category can be taken to be that form (up to equivalences in a suitable sense).
fiber product
Given a category C and a set I, the fiber product over an object S of a family of objects Xi in C indexed by I is the product of the family in the slice category   of C over S (provided there are  ). The fiber product of two objects X and Y over an object S is denoted by   and is also called a Cartesian square.
filtered
1.  A filtered category (also called a filtrant category) is a nonempty category with the properties (1) given objects i and j, there are an object k and morphisms ik and jk and (2) given morphisms u, v: ij, there are an object k and a morphism w: jk such that wu = wv. A category I is filtered if and only if, for each finite category J and functor f: JI, the set   is nonempty for some object i in I.
2.  Given a cardinal number π, a category is said to be π-filtrant if, for each category J whose set of morphisms has cardinal number strictly less than π, the set   is nonempty for some object i in I.
finitary monad
A finitary monad or an algebraic monad is a monad on Set whose underlying endofunctor commutes with filtered colimits.
finite
A category is finite if it has only finitely many morphisms.
forgetful functor
The forgetful functor is, roughly, a functor that loses some of data of the objects; for example, the functor   that sends a group to its underlying set and a group homomorphism to itself is a forgetful functor.
free functor
A free functor is a left adjoint to a forgetful functor. For example, for a ring R, the functor that sends a set X to the free R-module generated by X is a free functor (whence the name).
Frobenius category
A Frobenius category is an exact category that has enough injectives and enough projectives and such that the class of injective objects coincides with that of projective objects.
Fukaya category
See Fukaya category.
full
1.  A functor is full if it is surjective when restricted to each hom-set.
2.  A category A is a full subcategory of a category B if the inclusion functor from A to B is full.
functor
Given categories C, D, a functor F from C to D is a structure-preserving map from C to D; i.e., it consists of an object F(x) in D for each object x in C and a morphism F(f) in D for each morphism f in C satisfying the conditions: (1)   whenever   is defined and (2)  . For example,
 ,
where   is the power set of S is a functor if we define: for each function  ,   by  .
functor category
The functor category Fct(C, D) or   from a category C to a category D is the category where the objects are all the functors from C to D and the morphisms are all the natural transformations between the functors.

G

Gabriel–Popescu theorem
The Gabriel–Popescu theorem says an abelian category is a quotient of the category of modules.
Galois category
1.  In SGA 1, Exposé V (Definition 5.1.), a category is called a Galois category if it is equivalent to the category of finite G-sets for some profinite group G.
2.  For technical reasons, some authors (e.g., Stacks project[7] or [8]) use slightly different definitions.
generator
In a category C, a family of objects   is a system of generators of C if the functor   is conservative. Its dual is called a system of cogenerators.
Grothendieck's Galois theory
A category-theoretic generalization of Galois theory; see Grothendieck's Galois theory.
Grothendieck category
A Grothendieck category is a certain well-behaved kind of an abelian category.
Grothendieck construction
Given a functor  , let DU be the category where the objects are pairs (x, u) consisting of an object x in C and an object u in the category U(x) and a morphism from (x, u) to (y, v) is a pair consisting of a morphism f: xy in C and a morphism U(f)(u) → v in U(y). The passage from U to DU is then called the Grothendieck construction.
Grothendieck fibration
A fibered category.
groupoid
1.  A category is called a groupoid if every morphism in it is an isomorphism.
2.  An ∞-category is called an ∞-groupoid if every morphism in it is an equivalence (or equivalently if it is a Kan complex.)

H

Hall algebra of a category
See Ringel–Hall algebra.
heart
The heart of a t-structure ( ,  ) on a triangulated category is the intersection  . It is an abelian category.
Higher category theory
Higher category theory is a subfield of category theory that concerns the study of n-categories and ∞-categories.
homological dimension
The homological dimension of an abelian category with enough injectives is the least non-negativer integer n such that every object in the category admits an injective resolution of length at most n. The dimension is ∞ if no such integer exists. For example, the homological dimension of ModR with a principal ideal domain R is at most one.
homotopy category
See homotopy category. It is closely related to a localization of a category.
homotopy hypothesis
The homotopy hypothesis states an ∞-groupoid is a space (less equivocally, an n-groupoid can be used as a homotopy n-type.)

I

identity
1.  The identity morphism f of an object A is a morphism from A to A such that for any morphisms g with domain A and h with codomain A,   and  .
2.  The identity functor on a category C is a functor from C to C that sends objects and morphisms to themselves.
3.  Given a functor F: CD, the identity natural transformation from F to F is a natural transformation consisting of the identity morphisms of F(X) in D for the objects X in C.
image
The image of a morphism f: XY is the equalizer of  .
ind-limit
A colimit (or inductive limit) in  .
inductive limit
Another name for colimit.
∞-category
An ∞-category C is a simplicial set satisfying the following condition: for each 0 < i < n,
  • every map of simplicial sets   extends to an n-simplex  
where Δn is the standard n-simplex and   is obtained from Δn by removing the i-th face and the interior (see Kan fibration#Definitions). For example, the nerve of a category satisfies the condition and thus can be considered as an ∞-category.
initial
1.  An object A is initial if there is exactly one morphism from A to each object; e.g., empty set in Set.
2.  An object A in an ∞-category C is initial if   is contractible for each object B in C.
injective
1.  An object A in an abelian category is injective if the functor   is exact. It is the dual of a projective object.
2.  The term “injective limit” is another name for a direct limit.
internal Hom
Given a monoidal category (C, ⊗), the internal Hom is a functor   such that   is the right adjoint to   for each object Y in C. For example, the category of modules over a commutative ring R has the internal Hom given as  , the set of R-linear maps.
inverse
1.  A morphism f is an inverse to a morphism g if   is defined and is equal to the identity morphism on the codomain of g, and   is defined and equal to the identity morphism on the domain of g. The inverse of g is unique and is denoted by g−1. f is a left inverse to g if   is defined and is equal to the identity morphism on the domain of g, and similarly for a right inverse.
2.  An inverse limit is the limit of an inverse system.
isomorphic
1.  An object is isomorphic to another object if there is an isomorphism between them.
2.  A category is isomorphic to another category if there is an isomorphism between them.
isomorphism
A morphism f is an isomorphism if there exists an inverse of f.

K

Kan complex
A Kan complex is a fibrant object in the category of simplicial sets.
Kan extension
1.  Given a category C, the left Kan extension functor along a functor   is the left adjoint (if it exists) to   and is denoted by  . For any  , the functor   is called the left Kan extension of α along f.[9] One can show:
 
where the colimit runs over all objects   in the comma category.
2.  The right Kan extension functor is the right adjoint (if it exists) to  .
Ken Brown's lemma
Ken Brown's lemma is a lemma in the theory of model categories.
Kleisli category
Given a monad T, the Kleisli category of T is the full subcategory of the category of T-algebras (called Eilenberg–Moore category) that consists of free T-algebras.

L

lax
The term "lax functor" is essentially synonymous with "pseudo-functor".
length
An object in an abelian category is said to have finite length if it has a composition series. The maximum number of proper subobjects in any such composition series is called the length of A.[10]
limit
1.  The limit (or projective limit) of a functor   is
 
2.  The limit   of a functor   is an object, if any, in C that satisfies: for any object X in C,  ; i.e., it is an object representing the functor  
3.  The colimit (or inductive limit)   is the dual of a limit; i.e., given a functor  , it satisfies: for any X,  . Explicitly, to give   is to give a family of morphisms   such that for any  ,   is  . Perhaps the simplest example of a colimit is a coequalizer. For another example, take f to be the identity functor on C and suppose   exists; then the identity morphism on L corresponds to a compatible family of morphisms   such that   is the identity. If   is any morphism, then  ; i.e., L is a final object of C.
localization of a category
See localization of a category.

M

Mittag-Leffler condition
An inverse system   is said to satisfy the Mittag-Leffler condition if for each integer  , there is an integer   such that for each  , the images of   and   are the same.
monad
A monad in a category X is a monoid object in the monoidal category of endofunctors of X with the monoidal structure given by composition. For example, given a group G, define an endofunctor T on Set by  . Then define the multiplication μ on T as the natural transformation   given by
 
and also define the identity map η in the analogous fashion. Then (T, μ, η) constitutes a monad in Set. More substantially, an adjunction between functors   determines a monad in X; namely, one takes  , the identity map η on T to be a unit of the adjunction and also defines μ using the adjunction.
monadic
1.  An adjunction is said to be monadic if it comes from the monad that it determines by means of the Eilenberg–Moore category (the category of algebras for the monad).
2.  A functor is said to be monadic if it is a constituent of a monadic adjunction.
monoidal category
A monoidal category, also called a tensor category, is a category C equipped with (1) a bifunctor  , (2) an identity object and (3) natural isomorphisms that make ⊗ associative and the identity object an identity for ⊗, subject to certain coherence conditions.
monoid object
A monoid object in a monoidal category is an object together with the multiplication map and the identity map that satisfy the expected conditions like associativity. For example, a monoid object in Set is a usual monoid (unital semigroup) and a monoid object in R-mod is an associative algebra over a commutative ring R.
monomorphism
A morphism f is a monomorphism (also called monic) if   whenever  ; e.g., an injection in Set. In other words, f is the dual of an epimorphism.
multicategory
A multicategory is a generalization of a category in which a morphism is allowed to have more than one domain. It is the same thing as a colored operad.[11]

N

n-category

[T]he issue of comparing definitions of weak n-category is a slippery one, as it is hard to say what it even means for two such definitions to be equivalent. [...] It is widely held that the structure formed by weak n-categories and the functors, transformations, ... between them should be a weak (n + 1)-category; and if this is the case then the question is whether your weak (n + 1)-category of weak n-categories is equivalent to mine—but whose definition of weak (n + 1)-category are we using here... ?

Tom Leinster, A survey of definitions of n-category

1.  A strict n-category is defined inductively: a strict 0-category is a set and a strict n-category is a category whose Hom sets are strict (n-1)-categories. Precisely, a strict n-category is a category enriched over strict (n-1)-categories. For example, a strict 1-category is an ordinary category.
2.  The notion of a weak n-category is obtained from the strict one by weakening the conditions like associativity of composition to hold only up to coherent isomorphisms in the weak sense.
3.  One can define an ∞-category as a kind of a colim of n-categories. Conversely, if one has the notion of a (weak) ∞-category (say a quasi-category) in the beginning, then a weak n-category can be defined as a type of a truncated ∞-category.
natural
1.  A natural transformation is, roughly, a map between functors. Precisely, given a pair of functors F, G from a category C to category D, a natural transformation φ from F to G is a set of morphisms in D
 
satisfying the condition: for each morphism f: xy in C,  . For example, writing   for the group of invertible n-by-n matrices with coefficients in a commutative ring R, we can view   as a functor from the category CRing of commutative rings to the category Grp of groups. Similarly,   is a functor from CRing to Grp. Then the determinant det is a natural transformation from   to -*.
2.  A natural isomorphism is a natural transformation that is an isomorphism (i.e., admits the inverse).
 
The composition is encoded as a 2-simplex.
nerve
The nerve functor N is the functor from Cat to sSet given by  . For example, if   is a functor in   (called a 2-simplex), let  . Then   is a morphism   in C and also   for some g in C. Since   is   followed by   and since   is a functor,  . In other words,   encodes f, g and their compositions.
normal
A monomorphism is normal if it is the kernel of some morphism, and an epimorphism is conormal if it is the cokernel of some morphism. A category is normal if every monomorphism is normal.

O

object
1.  An object is part of a data defining a category.
2.  An [adjective] object in a category C is a contravariant functor (or presheaf) from some fixed category corresponding to the "adjective" to C. For example, a simplicial object in C is a contravariant functor from the simplicial category to C and a Γ-object is a pointed contravariant functor from Γ (roughly the pointed category of pointed finite sets) to C provided C is pointed.
op-fibration
A functor π:CD is an op-fibration if, for each object x in C and each morphism g : π(x) → y in D, there is at least one π-coCartesian morphism f: xy' in C such that π(f) = g. In other words, π is the dual of a Grothendieck fibration.
opposite
The opposite category of a category is obtained by reversing the arrows. For example, if a partially ordered set is viewed as a category, taking its opposite amounts to reversing the ordering.

P

perfect
Sometimes synonymous with "compact". See perfect complex.
pointed
A category (or ∞-category) is called pointed if it has a zero object.
polynomial
A functor from the category of finite-dimensional vector spaces to itself is called a polynomial functor if, for each pair of vector spaces V, W, F: Hom(V, W) → Hom(F(V), F(W)) is a polynomial map between the vector spaces. A Schur functor is a basic example.
preadditive
A category is preadditive if it is enriched over the monoidal category of abelian groups. More generally, it is R-linear if it is enriched over the monoidal category of R-modules, for R a commutative ring.
presentable
Given a regular cardinal κ, a category is κ-presentable if it admits all small colimits and is κ-accessible. A category is presentable if it is κ-presentable for some regular cardinal κ (hence presentable for any larger cardinal). Note: Some authors call a presentable category a locally presentable category.
presheaf
Another term for a contravariant functor: a functor from a category Cop to Set is a presheaf of sets on C and a functor from Cop to sSet is a presheaf of simplicial sets or simplicial presheaf, etc. A topology on C, if any, tells which presheaf is a sheaf (with respect to that topology).
product
1.  The product of a family of objects Xi in a category C indexed by a set I is the projective limit   of the functor  , where I is viewed as a discrete category. It is denoted by   and is the dual of the coproduct of the family.
2.  The product of a family of categories Ci's indexed by a set I is the category denoted by   whose class of objects is the product of the classes of objects of Ci's and whose hom-sets are  ; the morphisms are composed component-wise. It is the dual of the disjoint union.
profunctor
Given categories C and D, a profunctor (or a distributor) from C to D is a functor of the form  .
projective
1.  An object A in an abelian category is projective if the functor   is exact. It is the dual of an injective object.
2.  The term “projective limit” is another name for an inverse limit.
PROP
A PROP is a symmetric strict monoidal category whose objects are natural numbers and whose tensor product addition of natural numbers.
pseudoalgebra
A pseudoalgebra is a 2-category-version of an algebra for a monad (with a monad replaced by a 2-monad).

Q

Quillen
Quillen’s theorem A provides a criterion for a functor to be a weak equivalence.

R

reflect
1.  A functor is said to reflect identities if it has the property: if F(k) is an identity then k is an identity as well.
2.  A functor is said to reflect isomorphisms if it has the property: F(k) is an isomorphism then k is an isomorphism as well.
representable
A set-valued contravariant functor F on a category C is said to be representable if it belongs to the essential image of the Yoneda embedding  ; i.e.,   for some object Z. The object Z is said to be the representing object of F.
retraction
 
f is a retraction of g. g is a section of f.
A morphism is a retraction if it has a right inverse.
rig
A rig category is a category with two monoidal structures, one distributing over the other.

S

section
A morphism is a section if it has a left inverse. For example, the axiom of choice says that any surjective function admits a section.
Segal space
Segal spaces were certain simplicial spaces, introduced as models for (∞, 1)-categories.
semisimple
An abelian category is semisimple if every short exact sequence splits. For example, a ring is semisimple if and only if the category of modules over it is semisimple.
Serre functor
Given a k-linear category C over a field k, a Serre functor   is an auto-equivalence such that   for any objects A, B.
simple object
A simple object in an abelian category is an object A that is not isomorphic to the zero object and whose every subobject is isomorphic to zero or to A. For example, a simple module is precisely a simple object in the category of (say left) modules.
simplex category
The simplex category Δ is the category where an object is a set [n] = { 0, 1, …, n }, n ≥ 0, totally ordered in the standard way and a morphism is an order-preserving function.
simplicial category
A category enriched over simplicial sets.
Simplicial localization
Simplicial localization is a method of localizing a category.
simplicial object
A simplicial object in a category C is roughly a sequence of objects   in C that forms a simplicial set. In other words, it is a covariant or contravariant functor Δ → C. For example, a simplicial presheaf is a simplicial object in the category of presheaves.
simplicial set
A simplicial set is a contravariant functor from Δ to Set, where Δ is the simplex category, a category whose objects are the sets [n] = { 0, 1, …, n } and whose morphisms are order-preserving functions. One writes   and an element of the set   is called an n-simplex. For example,   is a simplicial set called the standard n-simplex. By Yoneda's lemma,  .
site
A category equipped with a Grothendieck topology.
skeletal
1.  A category is skeletal if isomorphic objects are necessarily identical.
2.  A (not unique) skeleton of a category is a full subcategory that is skeletal.
slice
Given a category C and an object A in it, the slice category C/A of C over A is the category whose objects are all the morphisms in C with codomain A, whose morphisms are morphisms in C such that if f is a morphism from   to  , then   in C and whose composition is that of C.
small
1.  A small category is a category in which the class of all morphisms is a set (i.e., not a proper class); otherwise large. A category is locally small if the morphisms between every pair of objects A and B form a set. Some authors assume a foundation in which the collection of all classes forms a "conglomerate", in which case a quasicategory is a category whose objects and morphisms merely form a conglomerate.[12] (NB: some authors use the term "quasicategory" with a different meaning.[13])
2.  An object in a category is said to be small if it is κ-compact for some regular cardinal κ. The notion prominently appears in Quiilen's small object argument (cf. https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/small+object+argument)
species
A (combinatorial) species is an endofunctor on the groupoid of finite sets with bijections. It is categorically equivalent to a symmetric sequence.
stable
An ∞-category is stable if (1) it has a zero object, (2) every morphism in it admits a fiber and a cofiber and (3) a triangle in it is a fiber sequence if and only if it is a cofiber sequence.
strict
A morphism f in a category admitting finite limits and finite colimits is strict if the natural morphism   is an isomorphism.
strict n-category
A strict 0-category is a set and for any integer n > 0, a strict n-category is a category enriched over strict (n-1)-categories. For example, a strict 1-category is an ordinary category. Note: the term "n-category" typically refers to "weak n-category"; not strict one.
subcanonical
A topology on a category is subcanonical if every representable contravariant functor on C is a sheaf with respect to that topology.[14] Generally speaking, some flat topology may fail to be subcanonical; but flat topologies appearing in practice tend to be subcanonical.
subcategory
A category A is a subcategory of a category B if there is an inclusion functor from A to B.
subobject
Given an object A in a category, a subobject of A is an equivalence class of monomorphisms to A; two monomorphisms f, g are considered equivalent if f factors through g and g factors through f.
subquotient
A subquotient is a quotient of a subobject.
subterminal object
A subterminal object is an object X such that every object has at most one morphism into X.
symmetric monoidal category
A symmetric monoidal category is a monoidal category (i.e., a category with ⊗) that has maximally symmetric braiding.
symmetric sequence
A symmetric sequence is a sequence of objects with actions of symmetric groups. It is categorically equivalent to a (combinatorial) species.

T

t-structure
A t-structure is an additional structure on a triangulated category (more generally stable ∞-category) that axiomatizes the notions of complexes whose cohomology concentrated in non-negative degrees or non-positive degrees.
Tannakian duality
The Tannakian duality states that, in an appropriate setup, to give a morphism   is to give a pullback functor   along it. In other words, the Hom set   can be identified with the functor category  , perhaps in the derived sense, where   is the category associated to X (e.g., the derived category).[15][16]
tensor category
Usually synonymous with monoidal category (though some authors distinguish between the two concepts.)
tensor triangulated category
A tensor triangulated category is a category that carries the structure of a symmetric monoidal category and that of a triangulated category in a compatible way.
tensor product
Given a monoidal category B, the tensor product of functors   and   is the coend:
 
terminal
1.  An object A is terminal (also called final) if there is exactly one morphism from each object to A; e.g., singletons in Set. It is the dual of an initial object.
2.  An object A in an ∞-category C is terminal if   is contractible for every object B in C.
thick subcategory
A full subcategory of an abelian category is thick if it is closed under extensions.
thin
A thin is a category where there is at most one morphism between any pair of objects.
triangulated category
A triangulated category is a category where one can talk about distinguished triangles, generalization of exact sequences. An abelian category is a prototypical example of a triangulated category. A derived category is a triangulated category that is not necessary an abelian category.

U

universal
1.  Given a functor   and an object X in D, a universal morphism from X to f is an initial object in the comma category  . (Its dual is also called a universal morphism.) For example, take f to be the forgetful functor   and X a set. An initial object of   is a function  . That it is initial means that if   is another morphism, then there is a unique morphism from j to k, which consists of a linear map   that extends k via j; that is to say,   is the free vector space generated by X.
2.  Stated more explicitly, given f as above, a morphism   in D is universal if and only if the natural map
 
is bijective. In particular, if  , then taking c to be uX one gets a universal morphism by sending the identity morphism. In other words, having a universal morphism is equivalent to the representability of the functor  .

W

Waldhausen category
A Waldhausen category is, roughly, a category with families of cofibrations and weak equivalences.
wellpowered
A category is wellpowered if for each object there is only a set of pairwise non-isomorphic subobjects.

Y

Yoneda
1.  

Yoneda’s Lemma asserts ... in more evocative terms, a mathematical object X is best thought of in the context of a category surrounding it, and is determined by the network of relations it enjoys with all the objects of that category. Moreover, to understand X it might be more germane to deal directly with the functor representing it. This is reminiscent of Wittgenstein’s ’language game’; i.e., that the meaning of a word is—in essence—determined by, in fact is nothing more than, its relations to all the utterances in a language.

Barry Mazur, Thinking about Grothendieck

The Yoneda lemma says: for each set-valued contravariant functor F on C and an object X in C, there is a natural bijection
 

where Nat means the set of natural transformations. In particular, the functor

 
is fully faithful and is called the Yoneda embedding.[17]
2.  If   is a functor and y is the Yoneda embedding of C, then the Yoneda extension of F is the left Kan extension of F along y.

Z

zero
A zero object is an object that is both initial and terminal, such as a trivial group in Grp.

Notes

  1. ^ If one believes in the existence of strongly inaccessible cardinals, then there can be a rigorous theory where statements and constructions have references to Grothendieck universes.
  2. ^ Remark 2.7. of https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/additive+category
  3. ^ Kashiwara & Schapira 2006, Ch. 2, Exercise 2.8.
  4. ^ Mac Lane 1998, Ch. III, § 3..
  5. ^ "Day convolution in nLab".
  6. ^ Hinich, V. (2013-11-17). "Dwyer-Kan localization revisited". arXiv:1311.4128 [math.QA].
  7. ^ Definition 3.6. in https://stacks.math.columbia.edu/download/pione.pdf#nameddest=0BQ6
  8. ^ Definition 7.2.1. in Bhatt, Bhargav; Scholze, Peter (2015), "The pro-étale topology for schemes", Astérisque: 99–201, arXiv:1309.1198, Bibcode:2013arXiv1309.1198B, MR 3379634
  9. ^ http://www.math.harvard.edu/~lurie/282ynotes/LectureXI-Homological.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  10. ^ Kashiwara & Schapira 2006, exercise 8.20
  11. ^ "Multicategory in nLab".
  12. ^ Adámek, Jiří; Herrlich, Horst; Strecker, George E (2004) [1990]. Abstract and Concrete Categories (The Joy of Cats) (PDF). New York: Wiley & Sons. p. 40. ISBN 0-471-60922-6.
  13. ^ Joyal, A. (2002). "Quasi-categories and Kan complexes". Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra. 175 (1–3): 207–222. doi:10.1016/S0022-4049(02)00135-4.
  14. ^ Vistoli 2004, Definition 2.57.
  15. ^ Jacob Lurie. Tannaka duality for geometric stacks. http://math.harvard.edu/~lurie/, 2004.
  16. ^ Bhatt, Bhargav (2014-04-29). "Algebraization and Tannaka duality". arXiv:1404.7483 [math.AG].
  17. ^ Technical note: the lemma implicitly involves a choice of Set; i.e., a choice of universe.

References

Further reading

  • Groth, M., A Short Course on ∞-categories
  • Cisinski's notes
  • History of topos theory
  • http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/category-theory/
  • Leinster, Tom (2014). Basic Category Theory. Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics. Vol. 143. Cambridge University Press. arXiv:1612.09375. Bibcode:2016arXiv161209375L.
  • Emily Riehl, A leisurely introduction to simplicial sets
  • Categorical Logic lecture notes by Steve Awodey
  • Street, Ross (20 Mar 2003). "Categorical and combinatorial aspects of descent theory". arXiv:math/0303175. (a detailed discussion of a 2-category)

glossary, category, theory, this, glossary, properties, concepts, category, theory, mathematics, also, outline, category, theory, notes, foundations, many, expositions, vistoli, theoretic, issues, ignored, this, means, instance, that, does, distinguish, betwee. This is a glossary of properties and concepts in category theory in mathematics see also Outline of category theory Notes on foundations In many expositions e g Vistoli the set theoretic issues are ignored this means for instance that one does not distinguish between small and large categories and that one can arbitrarily form a localization of a category 1 Like those expositions this glossary also generally ignores the set theoretic issues except when they are relevant e g the discussion on accessibility Especially for higher categories the concepts from algebraic topology are also used in the category theory For that see also glossary of algebraic topology The notations and the conventions used throughout the article are n 0 1 2 n which is viewed as a category by writing i j i j displaystyle i to j Leftrightarrow i leq j Cat the category of small categories where the objects are categories which are small with respect to some universe and the morphisms functors Fct C D the functor category the category of functors from a category C to a category D Set the category of small sets sSet the category of simplicial sets weak instead of strict is given the default status e g n category means weak n category not the strict one by default By an category we mean a quasi category the most popular model unless other models are being discussed The number zero 0 is a natural number Contents A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ See also ReferencesA Editabelian A category is abelian if it has a zero object it has all pullbacks and pushouts and all monomorphisms and epimorphisms are normal accessible 1 Given a cardinal number k an object X in a category is k accessible or k compact or k presentable if Hom X displaystyle operatorname Hom X commutes with k filtered colimits 2 Given a regular cardinal k a category is k accessible if it has k filtered colimits and there exists a small set S of k compact objects that generates the category under colimits meaning every object can be written as a colimit of diagrams of objects in S additive A category is additive if it is preadditive to be precise has some pre additive structure and admits all finite coproducts Although preadditive is an additional structure one can show additive is a property of a category i e one can ask whether a given category is additive or not 2 adjunction An adjunction also called an adjoint pair is a pair of functors F C D G D C such that there is a natural bijectionHom D F X Y Hom C X G Y displaystyle operatorname Hom D F X Y simeq operatorname Hom C X G Y F is said to be left adjoint to G and G to right adjoint to F Here natural means there is a natural isomorphism Hom D F Hom C G displaystyle operatorname Hom D F simeq operatorname Hom C G of bifunctors which are contravariant in the first variable dd algebra for a monad Given a monad T in a category X an algebra for T or a T algebra is an object in X with a monoid action of T algebra is misleading and T object is perhaps a better term For example given a group G that determines a monad T in Set in the standard way a T algebra is a set with an action of G amnestic A functor is amnestic if it has the property if k is an isomorphism and F k is an identity then k is an identity B Editbalanced A category is balanced if every bimorphism is an isomorphism Beck s theorem Beck s theorem characterizes the category of algebras for a given monad bicategory A bicategory is a model of a weak 2 category bifunctor A bifunctor from a pair of categories C and D to a category E is a functor C D E For example for any category C Hom displaystyle operatorname Hom is a bifunctor from Cop and C to Set bimonoidal A bimonoidal category is a category with two monoidal structures one distributing over the other bimorphism A bimorphism is a morphism that is both an epimorphism and a monomorphism Bousfield localization See Bousfield localization C Editcalculus of functors The calculus of functors is a technique of studying functors in the manner similar to the way a function is studied via its Taylor series expansion whence the term calculus cartesian closed A category is cartesian closed if it has a terminal object and that any two objects have a product and exponential cartesian functor Given relative categories p F C q G C displaystyle p F to C q G to C over the same base category C a functor f F G displaystyle f F to G over C is cartesian if it sends cartesian morphisms to cartesian morphisms cartesian morphism 1 Given a functor p C D e g a prestack over schemes a morphism f x y in C is p cartesian if for each object z in C each morphism g z y in C and each morphism v p z p x in D such that p g p f v there exists a unique morphism u z x such that p u v and g f u 2 Given a functor p C D e g a prestack over rings a morphism f x y in C is p coCartesian if for each object z in C each morphism g x z in C and each morphism v p y p z in D such that p g v p f there exists a unique morphism u y z such that p u v and g u f In short f is the dual of a p cartesian morphism Cartesian square A commutative diagram that is isomorphic to the diagram given as a fiber product categorical logic Categorical logic is an approach to mathematical logic that uses category theory categorification Categorification is a process of replacing sets and set theoretic concepts with categories and category theoretic concepts in some nontrivial way to capture categoric flavors Decategorification is the reverse of categorification category A category consists of the following data A class of objects For each pair of objects X Y a set Hom X Y displaystyle operatorname Hom X Y whose elements are called morphisms from X to Y For each triple of objects X Y Z a map called composition Hom Y Z Hom X Y Hom X Z g f g f displaystyle circ operatorname Hom Y Z times operatorname Hom X Y to operatorname Hom X Z g f mapsto g circ f For each object X an identity morphism id X Hom X X displaystyle operatorname id X in operatorname Hom X X subject to the conditions for any morphisms f X Y displaystyle f X to Y g Y Z displaystyle g Y to Z and h Z W displaystyle h Z to W h g f h g f displaystyle h circ g circ f h circ g circ f and id Y f f id X f displaystyle operatorname id Y circ f f circ operatorname id X f For example a partially ordered set can be viewed as a category the objects are the elements of the set and for each pair of objects x y there is a unique morphism x y displaystyle x to y if and only if x y displaystyle x leq y the associativity of composition means transitivity category of categories The category of small categories denoted by Cat is a category where the objects are all the categories which are small with respect to some fixed universe and the morphisms are all the functors classifying space The classifying space of a category C is the geometric realization of the nerve of C co Often used synonymous with op for example a colimit refers to an op limit in the sense that it is a limit in the opposite category But there might be a distinction for example an op fibration is not the same thing as a cofibration coend The coend of a functor F C op C X displaystyle F C text op times C to X is the dual of the end of F and is denoted by c C F c c displaystyle int c in C F c c For example if R is a ring M a right R module and N a left R module then the tensor product of M and N is M R N R M Z N displaystyle M otimes R N int R M otimes mathbb Z N where R is viewed as a category with one object whose morphisms are the elements of R dd coequalizer The coequalizer of a pair of morphisms f g A B displaystyle f g A to B is the colimit of the pair It is the dual of an equalizer coherence theorem A coherence theorem is a theorem of a form that states a weak structure is equivalent to a strict structure coimage The coimage of a morphism f X Y is the coequalizer of X Y X X displaystyle X times Y X rightrightarrows X colored operad Another term for multicategory a generalized category where a morphism can have several domains The notion of colored operad is more primitive than that of operad in fact an operad can be defined as a colored operad with a single object comma Given functors f C B g D B displaystyle f C to B g D to B the comma category f g displaystyle f downarrow g is a category where 1 the objects are morphisms f c g d displaystyle f c to g d and 2 a morphism from a f c g d displaystyle alpha f c to g d to b f c g d displaystyle beta f c to g d consists of c c displaystyle c to c and d d displaystyle d to d such that f c f c b g d displaystyle f c to f c overset beta to g d is f c a g d g d displaystyle f c overset alpha to g d to g d For example if f is the identity functor and g is the constant functor with a value b then it is the slice category of B over an object b comonad A comonad in a category X is a comonoid in the monoidal category of endofunctors of X compact Probably synonymous with accessible complete A category is complete if all small limits exist composition 1 A composition of morphisms in a category is part of the datum defining the category 2 If f C D g D E displaystyle f C to D g D to E are functors then the composition g f displaystyle g circ f or g f displaystyle gf is the functor defined by for an object x and a morphism u in C g f x g f x g f u g f u displaystyle g circ f x g f x g circ f u g f u 3 Natural transformations are composed pointwise if f f g ps g h displaystyle varphi f to g psi g to h are natural transformations then ps f displaystyle psi circ varphi is the natural transformation given by ps f x ps x f x displaystyle psi circ varphi x psi x circ varphi x concrete A concrete category C is a category such that there is a faithful functor from C to Set e g Vec Grp and Top cone A cone is a way to express the universal property of a colimit or dually a limit One can show 3 that the colimit lim displaystyle varinjlim is the left adjoint to the diagonal functor D C Fct I C displaystyle Delta C to operatorname Fct I C which sends an object X to the constant functor with value X that is for any X and any functor f I C displaystyle f I to C Hom lim f X Hom f D X displaystyle operatorname Hom varinjlim f X simeq operatorname Hom f Delta X provided the colimit in question exists The right hand side is then the set of cones with vertex X 4 dd connected A category is connected if for each pair of objects x y there exists a finite sequence of objects zi such that z 0 x z n y displaystyle z 0 x z n y and either Hom z i z i 1 displaystyle operatorname Hom z i z i 1 or Hom z i 1 z i displaystyle operatorname Hom z i 1 z i is nonempty for any i conservative functor A conservative functor is a functor that reflects isomorphisms Many forgetful functors are conservative but the forgetful functor from Top to Set is not conservative constant A functor is constant if it maps every object in a category to the same object A and every morphism to the identity on A Put in another way a functor f C D displaystyle f C to D is constant if it factors as C A i D displaystyle C to A overset i to D for some object A in D where i is the inclusion of the discrete category A contravariant functor A contravariant functor F from a category C to a category D is a covariant functor from Cop to D It is sometimes also called a presheaf especially when D is Set or the variants For example for each set S let P S displaystyle mathfrak P S be the power set of S and for each function f S T displaystyle f S to T defineP f P T P S displaystyle mathfrak P f mathfrak P T to mathfrak P S by sending a subset A of T to the pre image f 1 A displaystyle f 1 A With this P S e t S e t displaystyle mathfrak P mathbf Set to mathbf Set is a contravariant functor dd coproduct The coproduct of a family of objects Xi in a category C indexed by a set I is the inductive limit lim displaystyle varinjlim of the functor I C i X i displaystyle I to C i mapsto X i where I is viewed as a discrete category It is the dual of the product of the family For example a coproduct in Grp is a free product core The core of a category is the maximal groupoid contained in the category D EditDay convolution Given a group or monoid M the Day convolution is the tensor product in F c t M S e t displaystyle mathbf Fct M mathbf Set 5 density theorem The density theorem states that every presheaf a set valued contravariant functor is a colimit of representable presheaves Yoneda s lemma embeds a category C into the category of presheaves on C The density theorem then says the image is dense so to say The name density is because of the analogy with the Jacobson density theorem or other variants in abstract algebra diagonal functor Given categories I C the diagonal functor is the functorD C F c t I C A D A displaystyle Delta C to mathbf Fct I C A mapsto Delta A that sends each object A to the constant functor with value A and each morphism f A B displaystyle f A to B to the natural transformation D f i D A i A D B i B displaystyle Delta f i Delta A i A to Delta B i B that is f at each i dd diagram Given a category C a diagram in C is a functor f I C displaystyle f I to C from a small category I differential graded category A differential graded category is a category whose Hom sets are equipped with structures of differential graded modules In particular if the category has only one object it is the same as a differential graded module direct limit A direct limit is the colimit of a direct system discrete A category is discrete if each morphism is an identity morphism of some object For example a set can be viewed as a discrete category distributor Another term for profunctor Dwyer Kan equivalence A Dwyer Kan equivalence is a generalization of an equivalence of categories to the simplicial context 6 E EditEilenberg Moore category Another name for the category of algebras for a given monad empty The empty category is a category with no object It is the same thing as the empty set when the empty set is viewed as a discrete category end The end of a functor F C op C X displaystyle F C text op times C to X is the limit c C F c c lim F C X displaystyle int c in C F c c varprojlim F C to X where C displaystyle C is the category called the subdivision category of C whose objects are symbols c u displaystyle c u for all objects c and all morphisms u in C and whose morphisms are b u displaystyle b to u and u c displaystyle u to c if u b c displaystyle u b to c and where F displaystyle F is induced by F so that c displaystyle c would go to F c c displaystyle F c c and u u b c displaystyle u u b to c would go to F b c displaystyle F b c For example for functors F G C X displaystyle F G C to X c C Hom F c G c displaystyle int c in C operatorname Hom F c G c is the set of natural transformations from F to G For more examples see this mathoverflow thread The dual of an end is a coend dd endofunctor A functor between the same category enriched category Given a monoidal category C 1 a category enriched over C is informally a category whose Hom sets are in C More precisely a category D enriched over C is a data consisting of A class of objects For each pair of objects X Y in D an object Map D X Y displaystyle operatorname Map D X Y in C called the mapping object from X to Y For each triple of objects X Y Z in D a morphism in C Map D Y Z Map D X Y Map D X Z displaystyle circ operatorname Map D Y Z otimes operatorname Map D X Y to operatorname Map D X Z called the composition For each object X in D a morphism 1 X 1 Map D X X displaystyle 1 X 1 to operatorname Map D X X in C called the unit morphism of X subject to the conditions that roughly the compositions are associative and the unit morphisms act as the multiplicative identity For example a category enriched over sets is an ordinary category epimorphism A morphism f is an epimorphism if g h displaystyle g h whenever g f h f displaystyle g circ f h circ f In other words f is the dual of a monomorphism equalizer The equalizer of a pair of morphisms f g A B displaystyle f g A to B is the limit of the pair It is the dual of a coequalizer equivalence 1 A functor is an equivalence if it is faithful full and essentially surjective 2 A morphism in an category C is an equivalence if it gives an isomorphism in the homotopy category of C equivalent A category is equivalent to another category if there is an equivalence between them essentially surjective A functor F is called essentially surjective or isomorphism dense if for every object B there exists an object A such that F A is isomorphic to B evaluation Given categories C D and an object A in C the evaluation at A is the functorF c t C D D F F A displaystyle mathbf Fct C D to D F mapsto F A For example the Eilenberg Steenrod axioms give an instance when the functor is an equivalence dd F Editfaithful A functor is faithful if it is injective when restricted to each hom set fundamental category The fundamental category functor t 1 s S e t C a t displaystyle tau 1 s mathbf Set to mathbf Cat is the left adjoint to the nerve functor N For every category C t 1 N C C displaystyle tau 1 NC C fundamental groupoid The fundamental groupoid P 1 X displaystyle Pi 1 X of a Kan complex X is the category where an object is a 0 simplex vertex D 0 X displaystyle Delta 0 to X a morphism is a homotopy class of a 1 simplex path D 1 X displaystyle Delta 1 to X and a composition is determined by the Kan property fibered category A functor p C D is said to exhibit C as a category fibered over D if for each morphism g x p y in D there exists a p cartesian morphism f x y in C such that p f g If D is the category of affine schemes say of finite type over some field then p is more commonly called a prestack Note p is often a forgetful functor and in fact the Grothendieck construction implies that every fibered category can be taken to be that form up to equivalences in a suitable sense fiber product Given a category C and a set I the fiber product over an object S of a family of objects Xi in C indexed by I is the product of the family in the slice category C S displaystyle C S of C over S provided there are X i S displaystyle X i to S The fiber product of two objects X and Y over an object S is denoted by X S Y displaystyle X times S Y and is also called a Cartesian square filtered 1 A filtered category also called a filtrant category is a nonempty category with the properties 1 given objects i and j there are an object k and morphisms i k and j k and 2 given morphisms u v i j there are an object k and a morphism w j k such that w u w v A category I is filtered if and only if for each finite category J and functor f J I the set lim Hom f j i displaystyle varprojlim operatorname Hom f j i is nonempty for some object i in I 2 Given a cardinal number p a category is said to be p filtrant if for each category J whose set of morphisms has cardinal number strictly less than p the set lim Hom f j i displaystyle varprojlim operatorname Hom f j i is nonempty for some object i in I finitary monad A finitary monad or an algebraic monad is a monad on Set whose underlying endofunctor commutes with filtered colimits finite A category is finite if it has only finitely many morphisms forgetful functor The forgetful functor is roughly a functor that loses some of data of the objects for example the functor G r p S e t displaystyle mathbf Grp to mathbf Set that sends a group to its underlying set and a group homomorphism to itself is a forgetful functor free functor A free functor is a left adjoint to a forgetful functor For example for a ring R the functor that sends a set X to the free R module generated by X is a free functor whence the name Frobenius category A Frobenius category is an exact category that has enough injectives and enough projectives and such that the class of injective objects coincides with that of projective objects Fukaya category See Fukaya category full 1 A functor is full if it is surjective when restricted to each hom set 2 A category A is a full subcategory of a category B if the inclusion functor from A to B is full functor Given categories C D a functor F from C to D is a structure preserving map from C to D i e it consists of an object F x in D for each object x in C and a morphism F f in D for each morphism f in C satisfying the conditions 1 F f g F f F g displaystyle F f circ g F f circ F g whenever f g displaystyle f circ g is defined and 2 F id x id F x displaystyle F operatorname id x operatorname id F x For example P S e t S e t S P S displaystyle mathfrak P mathbf Set to mathbf Set S mapsto mathfrak P S where P S displaystyle mathfrak P S is the power set of S is a functor if we define for each function f S T displaystyle f S to T P f P S P T displaystyle mathfrak P f mathfrak P S to mathfrak P T by P f A f A displaystyle mathfrak P f A f A dd functor category The functor category Fct C D or D C displaystyle D C from a category C to a category D is the category where the objects are all the functors from C to D and the morphisms are all the natural transformations between the functors G EditGabriel Popescu theorem The Gabriel Popescu theorem says an abelian category is a quotient of the category of modules Galois category 1 In SGA 1 Expose V Definition 5 1 a category is called a Galois category if it is equivalent to the category of finite G sets for some profinite group G 2 For technical reasons some authors e g Stacks project 7 or 8 use slightly different definitions generator In a category C a family of objects G i i I displaystyle G i i in I is a system of generators of C if the functor X i I Hom G i X displaystyle X mapsto prod i in I operatorname Hom G i X is conservative Its dual is called a system of cogenerators Grothendieck s Galois theory A category theoretic generalization of Galois theory see Grothendieck s Galois theory Grothendieck category A Grothendieck category is a certain well behaved kind of an abelian category Grothendieck construction Given a functor U C C a t displaystyle U C to mathbf Cat let DU be the category where the objects are pairs x u consisting of an object x in C and an object u in the category U x and a morphism from x u to y v is a pair consisting of a morphism f x y in C and a morphism U f u v in U y The passage from U to DU is then called the Grothendieck construction Grothendieck fibration A fibered category groupoid 1 A category is called a groupoid if every morphism in it is an isomorphism 2 An category is called an groupoid if every morphism in it is an equivalence or equivalently if it is a Kan complex H EditHall algebra of a category See Ringel Hall algebra heart The heart of a t structure D 0 displaystyle D geq 0 D 0 displaystyle D leq 0 on a triangulated category is the intersection D 0 D 0 displaystyle D geq 0 cap D leq 0 It is an abelian category Higher category theory Higher category theory is a subfield of category theory that concerns the study of n categories and categories homological dimension The homological dimension of an abelian category with enough injectives is the least non negativer integer n such that every object in the category admits an injective resolution of length at most n The dimension is if no such integer exists For example the homological dimension of ModR with a principal ideal domain R is at most one homotopy category See homotopy category It is closely related to a localization of a category homotopy hypothesis The homotopy hypothesis states an groupoid is a space less equivocally an n groupoid can be used as a homotopy n type I Editidentity 1 The identity morphism f of an object A is a morphism from A to A such that for any morphisms g with domain A and h with codomain A g f g displaystyle g circ f g and f h h displaystyle f circ h h 2 The identity functor on a category C is a functor from C to C that sends objects and morphisms to themselves 3 Given a functor F C D the identity natural transformation from F to F is a natural transformation consisting of the identity morphisms of F X in D for the objects X in C image The image of a morphism f X Y is the equalizer of Y Y X Y displaystyle Y rightrightarrows Y sqcup X Y ind limit A colimit or inductive limit in F c t C op S e t displaystyle mathbf Fct C text op mathbf Set inductive limit Another name for colimit category An category C is a simplicial set satisfying the following condition for each 0 lt i lt n every map of simplicial sets f L i n C displaystyle f Lambda i n to C extends to an n simplex f D n C displaystyle f Delta n to C where Dn is the standard n simplex and L i n displaystyle Lambda i n is obtained from Dn by removing the i th face and the interior see Kan fibration Definitions For example the nerve of a category satisfies the condition and thus can be considered as an category initial 1 An object A is initial if there is exactly one morphism from A to each object e g empty set in Set 2 An object A in an category C is initial if Map C A B displaystyle operatorname Map C A B is contractible for each object B in C injective 1 An object A in an abelian category is injective if the functor Hom A displaystyle operatorname Hom A is exact It is the dual of a projective object 2 The term injective limit is another name for a direct limit internal Hom Given a monoidal category C the internal Hom is a functor C op C C displaystyle C text op times C to C such that Y displaystyle Y is the right adjoint to Y displaystyle otimes Y for each object Y in C For example the category of modules over a commutative ring R has the internal Hom given as M N Hom R M N displaystyle M N operatorname Hom R M N the set of R linear maps inverse 1 A morphism f is an inverse to a morphism g if g f displaystyle g circ f is defined and is equal to the identity morphism on the codomain of g and f g displaystyle f circ g is defined and equal to the identity morphism on the domain of g The inverse of g is unique and is denoted by g 1 f is a left inverse to g if f g displaystyle f circ g is defined and is equal to the identity morphism on the domain of g and similarly for a right inverse 2 An inverse limit is the limit of an inverse system isomorphic 1 An object is isomorphic to another object if there is an isomorphism between them 2 A category is isomorphic to another category if there is an isomorphism between them isomorphism A morphism f is an isomorphism if there exists an inverse of f K EditKan complex A Kan complex is a fibrant object in the category of simplicial sets Kan extension 1 Given a category C the left Kan extension functor along a functor f I J displaystyle f I to J is the left adjoint if it exists to f f Fct J C Fct I C displaystyle f circ f operatorname Fct J C to operatorname Fct I C and is denoted by f displaystyle f For any a I C displaystyle alpha I to C the functor f a J C displaystyle f alpha J to C is called the left Kan extension of a along f 9 One can show f a j lim f i j a i displaystyle f alpha j varinjlim f i to j alpha i where the colimit runs over all objects f i j displaystyle f i to j in the comma category dd 2 The right Kan extension functor is the right adjoint if it exists to f displaystyle f Ken Brown s lemma Ken Brown s lemma is a lemma in the theory of model categories Kleisli category Given a monad T the Kleisli category of T is the full subcategory of the category of T algebras called Eilenberg Moore category that consists of free T algebras L Editlax The term lax functor is essentially synonymous with pseudo functor length An object in an abelian category is said to have finite length if it has a composition series The maximum number of proper subobjects in any such composition series is called the length of A 10 limit 1 The limit or projective limit of a functor f I op S e t displaystyle f I text op to mathbf Set islim i I f i x i i i f i f s x j x i for any s i j displaystyle varprojlim i in I f i x i i in prod i f i f s x j x i text for any s i to j dd dd 2 The limit lim i I f i displaystyle varprojlim i in I f i of a functor f I op C displaystyle f I text op to C is an object if any in C that satisfies for any object X in C Hom X lim i I f i lim i I Hom X f i displaystyle operatorname Hom X varprojlim i in I f i varprojlim i in I operatorname Hom X f i i e it is an object representing the functor X lim i Hom X f i displaystyle X mapsto varprojlim i operatorname Hom X f i 3 The colimit or inductive limit lim i I f i displaystyle varinjlim i in I f i is the dual of a limit i e given a functor f I C displaystyle f I to C it satisfies for any X Hom lim f i X lim Hom f i X displaystyle operatorname Hom varinjlim f i X varprojlim operatorname Hom f i X Explicitly to give lim f i X displaystyle varinjlim f i to X is to give a family of morphisms f i X displaystyle f i to X such that for any i j displaystyle i to j f i X displaystyle f i to X is f i f j X displaystyle f i to f j to X Perhaps the simplest example of a colimit is a coequalizer For another example take f to be the identity functor on C and suppose L lim X C f X displaystyle L varinjlim X in C f X exists then the identity morphism on L corresponds to a compatible family of morphisms a X X L displaystyle alpha X X to L such that a L displaystyle alpha L is the identity If f X L displaystyle f X to L is any morphism then f a L f a X displaystyle f alpha L circ f alpha X i e L is a final object of C localization of a category See localization of a category M EditMittag Leffler condition An inverse system X 2 X 1 X 0 displaystyle cdots to X 2 to X 1 to X 0 is said to satisfy the Mittag Leffler condition if for each integer n 0 displaystyle n geq 0 there is an integer m n displaystyle m geq n such that for each l m displaystyle l geq m the images of X m X n displaystyle X m to X n and X l X n displaystyle X l to X n are the same monad A monad in a category X is a monoid object in the monoidal category of endofunctors of X with the monoidal structure given by composition For example given a group G define an endofunctor T on Set by T X G X displaystyle T X G times X Then define the multiplication m on T as the natural transformation m T T T displaystyle mu T circ T to T given bym X G G X G X g h x g h x displaystyle mu X G times G times X to G times X g h x mapsto gh x and also define the identity map h in the analogous fashion Then T m h constitutes a monad in Set More substantially an adjunction between functors F X A G displaystyle F X rightleftarrows A G determines a monad in X namely one takes T G F displaystyle T G circ F the identity map h on T to be a unit of the adjunction and also defines m using the adjunction dd monadic 1 An adjunction is said to be monadic if it comes from the monad that it determines by means of the Eilenberg Moore category the category of algebras for the monad 2 A functor is said to be monadic if it is a constituent of a monadic adjunction monoidal category A monoidal category also called a tensor category is a category C equipped with 1 a bifunctor C C C displaystyle otimes C times C to C 2 an identity object and 3 natural isomorphisms that make associative and the identity object an identity for subject to certain coherence conditions monoid object A monoid object in a monoidal category is an object together with the multiplication map and the identity map that satisfy the expected conditions like associativity For example a monoid object in Set is a usual monoid unital semigroup and a monoid object in R mod is an associative algebra over a commutative ring R monomorphism A morphism f is a monomorphism also called monic if g h displaystyle g h whenever f g f h displaystyle f circ g f circ h e g an injection in Set In other words f is the dual of an epimorphism multicategory A multicategory is a generalization of a category in which a morphism is allowed to have more than one domain It is the same thing as a colored operad 11 N Editn category T he issue of comparing definitions of weak n category is a slippery one as it is hard to say what it even means for two such definitions to be equivalent It is widely held that the structure formed by weak n categories and the functors transformations between them should be a weak n 1 category and if this is the case then the question is whether your weak n 1 category of weak n categories is equivalent to mine but whose definition of weak n 1 category are we using here Tom Leinster A survey of definitions of n category1 A strict n category is defined inductively a strict 0 category is a set and a strict n category is a category whose Hom sets are strict n 1 categories Precisely a strict n category is a category enriched over strict n 1 categories For example a strict 1 category is an ordinary category 2 The notion of a weak n category is obtained from the strict one by weakening the conditions like associativity of composition to hold only up to coherent isomorphisms in the weak sense 3 One can define an category as a kind of a colim of n categories Conversely if one has the notion of a weak category say a quasi category in the beginning then a weak n category can be defined as a type of a truncated category natural 1 A natural transformation is roughly a map between functors Precisely given a pair of functors F G from a category C to category D a natural transformation f from F to G is a set of morphisms in D ϕ x F x G x x Ob C displaystyle phi x F x to G x mid x in operatorname Ob C satisfying the condition for each morphism f x y in C ϕ y F f G f ϕ x displaystyle phi y circ F f G f circ phi x For example writing G L n R displaystyle GL n R for the group of invertible n by n matrices with coefficients in a commutative ring R we can view G L n displaystyle GL n as a functor from the category CRing of commutative rings to the category Grp of groups Similarly R R displaystyle R mapsto R is a functor from CRing to Grp Then the determinant det is a natural transformation from G L n displaystyle GL n to dd 2 A natural isomorphism is a natural transformation that is an isomorphism i e admits the inverse The composition is encoded as a 2 simplex nerve The nerve functor N is the functor from Cat to sSet given by N C n Hom C a t n C displaystyle N C n operatorname Hom mathbf Cat n C For example if f displaystyle varphi is a functor in N C 2 displaystyle N C 2 called a 2 simplex let x i f i 0 i 2 displaystyle x i varphi i 0 leq i leq 2 Then f 0 1 displaystyle varphi 0 to 1 is a morphism f x 0 x 1 displaystyle f x 0 to x 1 in C and also f 1 2 g x 1 x 2 displaystyle varphi 1 to 2 g x 1 to x 2 for some g in C Since 0 2 displaystyle 0 to 2 is 0 1 displaystyle 0 to 1 followed by 1 2 displaystyle 1 to 2 and since f displaystyle varphi is a functor f 0 2 g f displaystyle varphi 0 to 2 g circ f In other words f displaystyle varphi encodes f g and their compositions normal A monomorphism is normal if it is the kernel of some morphism and an epimorphism is conormal if it is the cokernel of some morphism A category is normal if every monomorphism is normal O Editobject 1 An object is part of a data defining a category 2 An adjective object in a category C is a contravariant functor or presheaf from some fixed category corresponding to the adjective to C For example a simplicial object in C is a contravariant functor from the simplicial category to C and a G object is a pointed contravariant functor from G roughly the pointed category of pointed finite sets to C provided C is pointed op fibration A functor p C D is an op fibration if for each object x in C and each morphism g p x y in D there is at least one p coCartesian morphism f x y in C such that p f g In other words p is the dual of a Grothendieck fibration opposite The opposite category of a category is obtained by reversing the arrows For example if a partially ordered set is viewed as a category taking its opposite amounts to reversing the ordering P Editperfect Sometimes synonymous with compact See perfect complex pointed A category or category is called pointed if it has a zero object polynomial A functor from the category of finite dimensional vector spaces to itself is called a polynomial functor if for each pair of vector spaces V W F Hom V W Hom F V F W is a polynomial map between the vector spaces A Schur functor is a basic example preadditive A category is preadditive if it is enriched over the monoidal category of abelian groups More generally it is R linear if it is enriched over the monoidal category of R modules for R a commutative ring presentable Given a regular cardinal k a category is k presentable if it admits all small colimits and is k accessible A category is presentable if it is k presentable for some regular cardinal k hence presentable for any larger cardinal Note Some authors call a presentable category a locally presentable category presheaf Another term for a contravariant functor a functor from a category Cop to Set is a presheaf of sets on C and a functor from Cop to sSet is a presheaf of simplicial sets or simplicial presheaf etc A topology on C if any tells which presheaf is a sheaf with respect to that topology product 1 The product of a family of objects Xi in a category C indexed by a set I is the projective limit lim displaystyle varprojlim of the functor I C i X i displaystyle I to C i mapsto X i where I is viewed as a discrete category It is denoted by i X i displaystyle prod i X i and is the dual of the coproduct of the family 2 The product of a family of categories Ci s indexed by a set I is the category denoted by i C i displaystyle prod i C i whose class of objects is the product of the classes of objects of Ci s and whose hom sets are i Hom C i X i Y i displaystyle prod i operatorname Hom operatorname C i X i Y i the morphisms are composed component wise It is the dual of the disjoint union profunctor Given categories C and D a profunctor or a distributor from C to D is a functor of the form D op C S e t displaystyle D text op times C to mathbf Set projective 1 An object A in an abelian category is projective if the functor Hom A displaystyle operatorname Hom A is exact It is the dual of an injective object 2 The term projective limit is another name for an inverse limit PROP A PROP is a symmetric strict monoidal category whose objects are natural numbers and whose tensor product addition of natural numbers pseudoalgebra A pseudoalgebra is a 2 category version of an algebra for a monad with a monad replaced by a 2 monad Q EditQuillen Quillen s theorem A provides a criterion for a functor to be a weak equivalence R Editreflect 1 A functor is said to reflect identities if it has the property if F k is an identity then k is an identity as well 2 A functor is said to reflect isomorphisms if it has the property F k is an isomorphism then k is an isomorphism as well representable A set valued contravariant functor F on a category C is said to be representable if it belongs to the essential image of the Yoneda embedding C F c t C op S e t displaystyle C to mathbf Fct C text op mathbf Set i e F Hom C Z displaystyle F simeq operatorname Hom C Z for some object Z The object Z is said to be the representing object of F retraction f is a retraction of g g is a section of f A morphism is a retraction if it has a right inverse rig A rig category is a category with two monoidal structures one distributing over the other S Editsection A morphism is a section if it has a left inverse For example the axiom of choice says that any surjective function admits a section Segal space Segal spaces were certain simplicial spaces introduced as models for 1 categories semisimple An abelian category is semisimple if every short exact sequence splits For example a ring is semisimple if and only if the category of modules over it is semisimple Serre functor Given a k linear category C over a field k a Serre functor f C C displaystyle f C to C is an auto equivalence such that Hom A B Hom B f A displaystyle operatorname Hom A B simeq operatorname Hom B f A for any objects A B simple object A simple object in an abelian category is an object A that is not isomorphic to the zero object and whose every subobject is isomorphic to zero or to A For example a simple module is precisely a simple object in the category of say left modules simplex category The simplex category D is the category where an object is a set n 0 1 n n 0 totally ordered in the standard way and a morphism is an order preserving function simplicial category A category enriched over simplicial sets Simplicial localization Simplicial localization is a method of localizing a category simplicial object A simplicial object in a category C is roughly a sequence of objects X 0 X 1 X 2 displaystyle X 0 X 1 X 2 dots in C that forms a simplicial set In other words it is a covariant or contravariant functor D C For example a simplicial presheaf is a simplicial object in the category of presheaves simplicial set A simplicial set is a contravariant functor from D to Set where D is the simplex category a category whose objects are the sets n 0 1 n and whose morphisms are order preserving functions One writes X n X n displaystyle X n X n and an element of the set X n displaystyle X n is called an n simplex For example D n Hom D n displaystyle Delta n operatorname Hom Delta n is a simplicial set called the standard n simplex By Yoneda s lemma X n Nat D n X displaystyle X n simeq operatorname Nat Delta n X site A category equipped with a Grothendieck topology skeletal 1 A category is skeletal if isomorphic objects are necessarily identical 2 A not unique skeleton of a category is a full subcategory that is skeletal slice Given a category C and an object A in it the slice category C A of C over A is the category whose objects are all the morphisms in C with codomain A whose morphisms are morphisms in C such that if f is a morphism from p X X A displaystyle p X X to A to p Y Y A displaystyle p Y Y to A then p Y f p X displaystyle p Y circ f p X in C and whose composition is that of C small 1 A small category is a category in which the class of all morphisms is a set i e not a proper class otherwise large A category is locally small if the morphisms between every pair of objects A and B form a set Some authors assume a foundation in which the collection of all classes forms a conglomerate in which case a quasicategory is a category whose objects and morphisms merely form a conglomerate 12 NB some authors use the term quasicategory with a different meaning 13 2 An object in a category is said to be small if it is k compact for some regular cardinal k The notion prominently appears in Quiilen s small object argument cf https ncatlab org nlab show small object argument species A combinatorial species is an endofunctor on the groupoid of finite sets with bijections It is categorically equivalent to a symmetric sequence stable An category is stable if 1 it has a zero object 2 every morphism in it admits a fiber and a cofiber and 3 a triangle in it is a fiber sequence if and only if it is a cofiber sequence strict A morphism f in a category admitting finite limits and finite colimits is strict if the natural morphism Coim f Im f displaystyle operatorname Coim f to operatorname Im f is an isomorphism strict n category A strict 0 category is a set and for any integer n gt 0 a strict n category is a category enriched over strict n 1 categories For example a strict 1 category is an ordinary category Note the term n category typically refers to weak n category not strict one subcanonical A topology on a category is subcanonical if every representable contravariant functor on C is a sheaf with respect to that topology 14 Generally speaking some flat topology may fail to be subcanonical but flat topologies appearing in practice tend to be subcanonical subcategory A category A is a subcategory of a category B if there is an inclusion functor from A to B subobject Given an object A in a category a subobject of A is an equivalence class of monomorphisms to A two monomorphisms f g are considered equivalent if f factors through g and g factors through f subquotient A subquotient is a quotient of a subobject subterminal object A subterminal object is an object X such that every object has at most one morphism into X symmetric monoidal category A symmetric monoidal category is a monoidal category i e a category with that has maximally symmetric braiding symmetric sequence A symmetric sequence is a sequence of objects with actions of symmetric groups It is categorically equivalent to a combinatorial species T Editt structure A t structure is an additional structure on a triangulated category more generally stable category that axiomatizes the notions of complexes whose cohomology concentrated in non negative degrees or non positive degrees Tannakian duality The Tannakian duality states that in an appropriate setup to give a morphism f X Y displaystyle f X to Y is to give a pullback functor f displaystyle f along it In other words the Hom set Hom X Y displaystyle operatorname Hom X Y can be identified with the functor category Fct D Y D X displaystyle operatorname Fct D Y D X perhaps in the derived sense where D X displaystyle D X is the category associated to X e g the derived category 15 16 tensor category Usually synonymous with monoidal category though some authors distinguish between the two concepts tensor triangulated category A tensor triangulated category is a category that carries the structure of a symmetric monoidal category and that of a triangulated category in a compatible way tensor product Given a monoidal category B the tensor product of functors F C op B displaystyle F C text op to B and G C B displaystyle G C to B is the coend F C G c C F c G c displaystyle F otimes C G int c in C F c otimes G c dd terminal 1 An object A is terminal also called final if there is exactly one morphism from each object to A e g singletons in Set It is the dual of an initial object 2 An object A in an category C is terminal if Map C B A displaystyle operatorname Map C B A is contractible for every object B in C thick subcategory A full subcategory of an abelian category is thick if it is closed under extensions thin A thin is a category where there is at most one morphism between any pair of objects triangulated category A triangulated category is a category where one can talk about distinguished triangles generalization of exact sequences An abelian category is a prototypical example of a triangulated category A derived category is a triangulated category that is not necessary an abelian category U Edituniversal 1 Given a functor f C D displaystyle f C to D and an object X in D a universal morphism from X to f is an initial object in the comma category X f displaystyle X downarrow f Its dual is also called a universal morphism For example take f to be the forgetful functor V e c k S e t displaystyle mathbf Vec k to mathbf Set and X a set An initial object of X f displaystyle X downarrow f is a function j X f V X displaystyle j X to f V X That it is initial means that if k X f W displaystyle k X to f W is another morphism then there is a unique morphism from j to k which consists of a linear map V X W displaystyle V X to W that extends k via j that is to say V X displaystyle V X is the free vector space generated by X 2 Stated more explicitly given f as above a morphism X f u X displaystyle X to f u X in D is universal if and only if the natural mapHom C u X c Hom D X f c a X f u x f a f c displaystyle operatorname Hom C u X c to operatorname Hom D X f c alpha mapsto X to f u x overset f alpha to f c is bijective In particular if Hom C u X Hom D X f displaystyle operatorname Hom C u X simeq operatorname Hom D X f then taking c to be uX one gets a universal morphism by sending the identity morphism In other words having a universal morphism is equivalent to the representability of the functor Hom D X f displaystyle operatorname Hom D X f dd W EditWaldhausen category A Waldhausen category is roughly a category with families of cofibrations and weak equivalences wellpowered A category is wellpowered if for each object there is only a set of pairwise non isomorphic subobjects Y EditYoneda 1 Yoneda s Lemma asserts in more evocative terms a mathematical object X is best thought of in the context of a category surrounding it and is determined by the network of relations it enjoys with all the objects of that category Moreover to understand X it might be more germane to deal directly with the functor representing it This is reminiscent of Wittgenstein s language game i e that the meaning of a word is in essence determined by in fact is nothing more than its relations to all the utterances in a language Barry Mazur Thinking about GrothendieckThe Yoneda lemma says for each set valued contravariant functor F on C and an object X in C there is a natural bijectionF X Nat Hom C X F displaystyle F X simeq operatorname Nat operatorname Hom C X F where Nat means the set of natural transformations In particular the functor y C F c t C op S e t X Hom C X displaystyle y C to mathbf Fct C text op mathbf Set X mapsto operatorname Hom C X is fully faithful and is called the Yoneda embedding 17 dd 2 If F C D displaystyle F C to D is a functor and y is the Yoneda embedding of C then the Yoneda extension of F is the left Kan extension of F along y Z Editzero A zero object is an object that is both initial and terminal such as a trivial group in Grp Notes Edit If one believes in the existence of strongly inaccessible cardinals then there can be a rigorous theory where statements and constructions have references to Grothendieck universes Remark 2 7 of https ncatlab org nlab show additive category Kashiwara amp Schapira 2006 Ch 2 Exercise 2 8 Mac Lane 1998 Ch III 3 Day convolution in nLab Hinich V 2013 11 17 Dwyer Kan localization revisited arXiv 1311 4128 math QA Definition 3 6 in https stacks math columbia edu download pione pdf nameddest 0BQ6 Definition 7 2 1 in Bhatt Bhargav Scholze Peter 2015 The pro etale topology for schemes Asterisque 99 201 arXiv 1309 1198 Bibcode 2013arXiv1309 1198B MR 3379634 http www math harvard edu lurie 282ynotes LectureXI Homological pdf bare URL PDF Kashiwara amp Schapira 2006 exercise 8 20 Multicategory in nLab Adamek Jiri Herrlich Horst Strecker George E 2004 1990 Abstract and Concrete Categories The Joy of Cats PDF New York Wiley amp Sons p 40 ISBN 0 471 60922 6 Joyal A 2002 Quasi categories and Kan complexes Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra 175 1 3 207 222 doi 10 1016 S0022 4049 02 00135 4 Vistoli 2004 Definition 2 57 Jacob Lurie Tannaka duality for geometric stacks http math harvard edu lurie 2004 Bhatt Bhargav 2014 04 29 Algebraization and Tannaka duality arXiv 1404 7483 math AG Technical note the lemma implicitly involves a choice of Set i e a choice of universe References EditArtin Michael 1972 Alexandre Grothendieck Jean Louis Verdier eds Seminaire de Geometrie Algebrique du Bois Marie 1963 64 Theorie des topos et cohomologie etale des schemas SGA 4 vol 1 Lecture Notes in Mathematics in French Vol 269 Berlin New York Springer Verlag xix 525 doi 10 1007 BFb0081551 ISBN 978 3 540 05896 0 Grothendieck Alexandre 1971 Seminaire de Geometrie Algebrique du Bois Marie 1960 61 Revetements etales et groupe fondamental SGA 1 Lecture notes in mathematics 224 Lecture Notes in Mathematics in French Vol 224 Berlin New York Springer Verlag xxii 447 doi 10 1007 BFb0058656 ISBN 978 3 540 05614 0 MR 0354651 Kashiwara Masaki Schapira Pierre 2006 Categories and sheaves A Joyal The theory of quasi categories II Volume I is missing Lurie J Higher Algebra Lurie J Higher Topos Theory Mac Lane Saunders 1998 Categories for the Working Mathematician Graduate Texts in Mathematics Vol 5 2nd ed New York NY Springer Verlag ISBN 0 387 98403 8 Zbl 0906 18001 Pedicchio Maria Cristina Tholen Walter eds 2004 Categorical foundations Special topics in order topology algebra and sheaf theory Encyclopedia of Mathematics and Its Applications Vol 97 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 83414 7 Zbl 1034 18001 Vistoli Angelo 2004 12 28 Notes on Grothendieck topologies fibered categories and descent theory arXiv math 0412512 Further reading EditGroth M A Short Course on categories Cisinski s notes History of topos theory http plato stanford edu entries category theory Leinster Tom 2014 Basic Category Theory Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics Vol 143 Cambridge University Press arXiv 1612 09375 Bibcode 2016arXiv161209375L Emily Riehl A leisurely introduction to simplicial sets Categorical Logic lecture notes by Steve Awodey Street Ross 20 Mar 2003 Categorical and combinatorial aspects of descent theory arXiv math 0303175 a detailed discussion of a 2 category Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Glossary of category theory amp oldid 1132218884, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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