In this thesis I lift the Curry--Howard--Lambek correspondence between the simply-typed lambda calculus and cartesian closed categories to the bicategorical setting, then use the resulting type theory to prove a coherence result for cartesian closed bicategories. Cartesian closed bicategories---2-categories `up to isomorphism' equipped with similarly weak products and exponentials---arise in logic, categorical algebra, and game semantics. I show that there is at most one 2-cell between any parallel pair of 1-cells in the free cartesian closed bicategory on a set and hence---in terms of the difficulty of calculating---bring the data of cartesian closed bicategories down to the familiar level of cartesian closed categories.
In fact, I prove this result in two ways. The first argument is closely related to Power's coherence theorem for bicategories with flexible bilimits. For the second, which is the central preoccupation of this thesis, the proof strategy has two parts: the construction of a type theory, and the proof that it satisfies a form of normalisation I call "local coherence". I synthesise the type theory from algebraic principles using a novel generalisation of the (multisorted) abstract clones of universal algebra, called "biclones". Using a bicategorical treatment of M. Fiore's categorical analysis of normalisation-by-evaluation, I then prove a normalisation result which entails the coherence theorem for cartesian closed bicategories. In contrast to previous coherence results for bicategories, the argument does not rely on the theory of rewriting or strictify using the Yoneda embedding. Along the way I prove bicategorical generalisations of a series of well-established category-theoretic results, present a notion of glueing of bicategories, and bicategorify the folklore result providing sufficient conditions for a glueing category to be cartesian closed.
Relational structures are emerging as ubiquitous mathematical machinery in the semantics of open systems of various kinds. Cartesian bicategories are a well-known categorical algebra of relations that has proved especially useful in recent applications. The passage between a category and its bicategory of relations is an important question that has been widely studied for decades. We study an alternative construction that yields a cartesian bicategory of relations. Its behaviour is closely related to the axiom of choice, which itself can be expressed in the language of cartesian bicategories.
We study the relationship between cartesian bicategories and a specialisation of Lawvere's hyperdoctrines, namely elementary existential doctrines. Both provide different ways of abstracting the structural properties of logical systems: the former in algebraic terms based on a string diagrammatic calculus, the latter in universal terms using the fundamental notion of adjoint functor. We prove that these two approaches are related by an adjunction, which can be strengthened to an equivalence by imposing further constraints on doctrines.
Bicategories of spans are characterized as cartesian bicategories in which every comonad has an Eilenberg-Moore ob ject and every left adjoint arrow is comonadic.
The notion of cartesian bicategory, introduced by Carboni and Walters for locally ordered bicategories, is extended to general bicategories. It is shown that a cartesian bicategory is a symmetric monoidal bicategory.
Maps (left adjoint arrows) between Frobenius objects in a cartesian bicategory B are precisely comonoid homomorphisms and, for A Frobenius and any T in B, map(B)(T,A) is a groupoid.
In this paper, we provide a notion of $\infty$-bicategories fibred in $\infty$-bicategories which we call 2-Cartesian fibrations. Our definition is formulated using the language of marked biscaled simplicial sets: Those are scaled simplicial sets equipped with an additional collection of triangles containing the scaled 2-simplices, which we call lean triangles, in addition to a collection of edges containing all degenerate 1-simplices. We prove the existence of a left proper combinatorial simplicial model category whose fibrant objects are precisely the 2-Cartesian fibrations over a chosen sca…
We prove a coherence theorem for braided monoidal bicategories and relate it to the coherence theorem for monoidal bicategories. We show how coherence for these structures can be interpretted topologically using up-to-homotopy operad actions and the algebraic classification of surface braids.
Regular logic is the fragment of first order logic generated by $=$, $\top$, $\wedge$, and $\exists$. A key feature of this logic is that it is the minimal fragment required to express composition of binary relations; another is that it is the internal logic of regular categories. The link between these two facts is that in any regular category, one may construct a notion of binary relation using jointly-monic spans; this results in what is known as the bicategory of relations of the regular category. In this paper we provide a direct axiomatization of bicategories of relations, which we term …
Coherence theorems are fundamental to how we think about monoidal categories and their generalizations. In this paper we revisit Mac Lane's original proof of coherence for monoidal categories using the Grothendieck construction. This perspective makes the approach of Mac Lane's proof very amenable to generalization. We use the technique to give efficient proofs of many standard coherence theorems and new coherence results for bicategories with shadow and for their functors.
We reconcile the two different category-theoretic semantics of regular theories in predicate logic. A 2-category of `regular fibrations' is constructed, as well as a 2-category of `regular proarrow equipments', and it is shown that the two are equivalent. A regular equipment is a `cartesian equipment' satisfying certain axioms, and a cartesian equipment is a slight generalization of a cartesian bicategory. This is done by defining a tricategory Biprof whose objects are bicategories and whose morphisms are category-valued profunctors, and then defining an equipment to be a pseudo-monad in this …
In this thesis, we introduce Cartesian double categories, motivated by the work of Carboni, Kelly, Walters, and Wood on Cartesian bicategories. Moving from bicategories to the slightly more generalized notion of double categories allows us to set the whole theory inside the welcoming 2-category of double categories, and to overcome technical problems that were caused by working with left adjoints inside a general bicategory. Cartesian double categories that are also fibrant are of particular interest to us. After describing some important properties of Cartesian and fibrant double categories, …
Poly-bicategories generalise planar polycategories in the same way as bicategories generalise monoidal categories. In a poly-bicategory, the existence of enough 2-cells satisfying certain universal properties (representability) induces coherent algebraic structure on the 2-graph of single-input, single-output 2-cells. A special case of this theory was used by Hermida to produce a proof of strictification for bicategories. No full strictification is possible for higher-dimensional categories, seemingly due to problems with 2-cells that have degenerate boundaries; it was conjectured by C. Simpso…
A compact closed bicategory is a symmetric monoidal bicategory where every object is equipped with a weak dual. The unit and counit satisfy the usual "zig-zag" identities of a compact closed category only up to natural isomorphism, and the isomorphism is subject to a coherence law. We give several examples of compact closed bicategories, then review previous work. In particular, Day and Street defined compact closed bicategories indirectly via Gray monoids and then appealed to a coherence theorem to extend the concept to bicategories; we restate the definition directly. We prove that given a 2…
This paper proves three different coherence theorems for symmetric monoidal bicategories. First, we show that in a free symmetric monoidal bicategory every diagram of 2-cells commutes. Second, we show that this implies that the free symmetric monoidal bicategory on one object is equivalent, as a symmetric monoidal bicategory, to the discrete symmetric monoidal bicategory given by the disjoint union of the symmetric groups. Third, we show that every symmetric monoidal bicategory is equivalent to a strict one. We give two topological applications of these coherence results. First, we show that t…
We establish the universal properties of the bicategory of polynomials, considering both cartesian and general morphisms between these polynomials. A direct proof of these universal properties would be impractical due to the complicated coherence conditions arising from polynomial composition; however, in this paper we avoid most of these coherence conditions using the properties of generic bicategories. In addition, we give a new proof of the universal properties of the bicategory of spans, and also establish the universal properties of the bicategory of spans with invertible 2-cells; showing…
We prove coherence theorems for bicategories, pseudofunctors and pseudonatural transformations. These theorems boil down to proving the coherence of some free $(4,2)$-categories. In the case of bicategories and pseudofunctors, existing rewriting techniques based on Squier's Theorem allow us to conclude. In the case of pseudonatural transformations this approach only proves the coherence of part of the structure, and we use a new rewriting result to conclude. To this end, we introduce the notions of white-categories and partial coherence.
We present a method of constructing monoidal, braided monoidal, and symmetric monoidal bicategories from corresponding types of monoidal double categories that satisfy a lifting condition. Many important monoidal bicategories arise naturally in this way, and applying our general method is much easier than explicitly verifying the coherence laws of a monoidal bicategory for each example. Abstracting from earlier work in this direction, we express the construction as a functor between locally cubical bicategories that preserves monoid objects; this ensures that it also preserves monoidal functor…
In some bicategories, the 1-cells are `morphisms' between the 0-cells, such as functors between categories, but in others they are `objects' over the 0-cells, such as bimodules, spans, distributors, or parametrized spectra. Many bicategorical notions do not work well in these cases, because the `morphisms between 0-cells', such as ring homomorphisms, are missing. We can include them by using a pseudo double category, but usually these morphisms also induce base change functors acting on the 1-cells. We avoid complicated coherence problems by describing base change `nonalgebraically', using cat…
The goal of this paper is to provide the last equivalence needed in order to identify all known models for $(\infty,2)$-categories. We do this by showing that Verity's model of saturated $2$-trivial complicial sets is equivalent to Lurie's model of $\infty$-bicategories, which, in turn, has been shown to be equivalent to all other known models for $(\infty,2)$-categories. A key technical input is given by identifying the notion of $\infty$-bicategories with that of weak $\infty$-bicategories, a step which allows us to understand Lurie's model structure in terms of Cisinski--Olschok's theory. T…
This book is an introduction to 2-categories and bicategories, assuming only the most elementary aspects of category theory. A review of basic category theory is followed by a systematic discussion of 2-/bicategories, pasting diagrams, lax functors, 2-/bilimits, the Duskin nerve, 2-nerve, adjunctions and monads in bicategories, 2-monads, biequivalences, the Bicategorical Yoneda Lemma, and the Coherence Theorem for bicategories. Grothendieck fibrations and the Grothendieck construction are discussed next, followed by tricategories, monoidal bicategories, the Gray tensor product, and double cate…
Locally cartesian closed (lcc) categories are natural categorical models of extensional dependent type theory. This paper introduces the "gros" semantics in the category of lcc categories: Instead of constructing an interpretation in a given individual lcc category, we show that also the category of all lcc categories can be endowed with the structure of a model of dependent type theory. The original interpretation in an individual lcc category can then be recovered by slicing. As in the original interpretation, we face the issue of coherence: Categorical structure is usually preserved by func…
It is proved that equalities between arrows assumed for cartesian categories are maximal in the sense that extending them with any new equality in the language of free cartesian categories collapses a cartesian category into a preorder. An analogous result holds for categories with binary products, which may lack a terminal object. The proof is based on a coherence result for cartesian categories, which is related to model-theoretical methods of normalization.
It is proved that MacLane's coherence results for monoidal and symmetric monoidal categories can be extended to some other categories with multiplication; namely, to relevant, affine and cartesian categories. All results are formulated in terms of natural transformations equipped with ``graphs'' (g-natural transformations), and corresponding morphism theorems are given as consequences. Using these results, some basic relations between the free categories of these classes are obtained.
A relevant category is a symmetric monoidal closed category with a diagonal natural transformation that satisfies some coherence conditions. Every cartesian closed category is a relevant category in this sense. The denomination 'relevant' comes from the connection with relevant logic. It is shown that the category of sets with partial functions, which is isomorphic to the category of pointed sets, is a category that is relevant, but not cartesian closed.
Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；University of Hamburg（汉堡大学）；University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学）；Dalhousie University（达尔豪斯大学）；Univ. Artois, UR 2462 , Laboratoire de Mathématiques de Lens (LML)（阿图瓦大学，UR 2462，伦斯数学实验室 (LML)）；Max Planck Institute for Mathematics（马克斯·普朗克数学研究所）
We present a new coherence theorem for comprehension categories, providing strict models of dependent type theory with all standard constructors, including dependent products, dependent sums, identity types, and other inductive types. Precisely, we take as input a "weak model": a comprehension category, equipped with structure corresponding to the desired logical constructions. We assume throughout that the base category is close to locally Cartesian closed: specifically, that products and certain exponentials exist. Beyond this, we require only that the logical structure should be *weakly sta…
