In several familiar subcategories of the category ${\mathbb T}$ of topological spaces and continuous maps, embeddings are not pushout-stable. But, an interesting feature, capturable in many categories, namely in categories $\mathcal{B}$ of topological spaces, is the following: For $\mathcal{M}$ the class of all embeddings, the subclass of all pushout-stable $\mathcal{M}$-morphisms (that is, of those $\mathcal{M}$-morphisms whose pushout along an arbitrary morphism always belongs to $\mathcal{M}$) is of the form $A^{Inj}$ for some space $A$, where $A^{Inj}$ consists of all morphisms $m:X \to Y$ such that the map $Hom(m,A): Hom(Y,A) \to Hom(X,A)$ is surjective. We study this phenomenon. We show that, under mild assumptions, the reflective hull of such a space $A$ is the smallest $\mathcal{M}$-reflective subcategory of $\mathcal{B}$; furthermore, the opposite category of this reflective hull is equivalent to a reflective subcategory of the Eilenberg-Moore category $Set^{\mathbb T}, where ${\mathbb T}$ is the monad induced by the right adjoint $Hom(-,A): {\mathbb T}^{op} \to Set$. We also find conditions on a category $\mathcal{B}$ under which the pushout-stable $\mathcal{M}$-morphisms are of the form $\mathcal{A}^{Inj}$ for some category $\mathcal{A}$.
In a paper by Ford, it is claimed that to any pushout square of categories with all involved functors injective, there is associated an exact "Mayer--Vietoris" sequence of derived (co)limits. We provide a counter-example to this general statement. Further, we construct the Mayer--Vietoris sequence under some restrictions that cover the well-known case of a pushout square of group monomorphisms.
A category is adhesive if it has all pullbacks, all pushouts along monomorphisms, and all exactness conditions between pullbacks and pushouts along monomorphisms which hold in a topos. This condition can be modified by considering only pushouts along regular monomorphisms, or by asking only for the exactness conditions which hold in a quasitopos. We prove four characterization theorems dealing with adhesive categories and their variants.
The paper focuses on investigating how certain relations between strict $n$-categories are preserved in a particular implementation of $(\infty,n)$-categories, given by saturated $n$-complicial sets. In this model, we show that the $(\infty,n)$-categorical nerve of $n$-categories is homotopically compatible with $1$-categorical suspension and wedge. As an application, we show that certain pushouts encoding composition in $n$-categories are homotopy pushouts of saturated $n$-complicial sets.
Adhesive categories are categories which have pushouts with one leg a monomorphism, all pullbacks, and certain exactness conditions relating these pushouts and pullbacks. We give a new proof of the fact that every topos is adhesive. We also prove a converse: every small adhesive category has a fully faithful functor in a topos, with the functor preserving the all the structure. Combining these two results, we see that the exactness conditions in the definition of adhesive category are exactly the relationship between pushouts along monomorphisms and pullbacks which hold in any topos.
We call a finitely complete category diexact if every Mal'cev relation admits a pushout which is stable under pullback and itself a pullback. We prove three results relating to diexact categories: firstly, that a category is a pretopos if and only if it is diexact with a strict initial object; secondly, that a category is diexact if and only if it is Barr-exact, and every pair of monomorphisms admits a pushout which is stable and a pullback; and thirdly, that a small category with finite limits and pushouts of Mal'cev spans is diexact if and only if it admits a full structure-preserving embedd…
We consider two preorder-enriched categories of ordered PCAs: $\mathsf{OPCA}$, where the arrows are functional morphisms, and $\mathsf{PCA}$, where the arrows are applicative morphisms. We show that $\mathsf{OPCA}$ has small products and finite biproducts, and that $\mathsf{PCA}$ has finite coproducts, all in a suitable 2-categorical sense. On the other hand, $\mathsf{PCA}$ lacks all nontrivial binary products. We deduce from this that the pushout, over $\mathsf{Set}$, of two nontrivial realizability toposes is never a realizability topos.
Injectivity of objects with respect to a set $\ch$ of morphisms is an important concept of algebra, model theory and homotopy theory. Here we study the logic of injectivity consequences of $\ch$, by which we understand morphisms $h$ such that injectivity with respect to $\ch$ implies injectivity with respect to $h$. We formulate three simple deduction rules for the injectivity logic and for its finitary version where \mor s between finitely ranked objects are considered only, and prove that they are sound in all categories, and complete in all "reasonable" categories.
We provide various ways to characterise $Σ$-pure-injective objects in a compactly generated triangulated category. These characterisations mimic analogous well-known results from the model theory of modules. The proof involves two approaches. In the first approach we adapt arguments from the module-theoretic setting. Here the one-sorted language of modules over a fixed ring is replaced with a canonical multi-sorted language, whose sorts are given by compact objects. Throughout we use a variation of the Yoneda embedding, called the resticted Yoneda functor, which associates a multi-sorted struc…
Properties of categories enriched over the category of metric spaces are investigated and applied to a study of constructions known from that category and the category of Banach spaces. For every class of morphisms satisfying a mild smallness condition we prove the corresponding approximate-injectivity class is weakly reflective, and we study the properties of the reflection morphisms. As an application we present a new categorical proof of the essential uniqueness of the Gurarii space.
Continuous lattices were characterised by Martin Escardo as precisely the objects that are Kan-injective w.r.t. a certain class of morphisms. We study Kan-injectivity in general categories enriched in posets. For every class H of morphisms we study the subcategory of all objects Kan-injective w.r.t. H and all morphisms preserving Kan-extensions. For categories such as Top_0 and Pos we prove that whenever H is a set of morphisms, the above subcategory is monadic, and the monad it creates is a Kock-Zoeberlein monad. However, this does not generalise to proper classes: we present a class of conti…
We show that various cube categories (without diagonals, but with symmetries / connections / reversals) are Eilenberg-Zilber categories. This generalizes a result of Isaacson for one particular cubical site. Our method does not involve direct verification of any absolute pushout diagrams. While we are at it, we record some folklore descriptions of cube categories with diagonals and determine exactly which of these are EZ categories. Beforehand, we develop some general theory of Eilenberg-Zilber categories. We show that a mild generalization of the EZ categories of Berger and Moerdijk are in fa…
We give an explicit description of the generator of finitely presented objects of the coslice of a locally finitely presentable category under a given object, as consisting of all pushouts of finitely presented maps under this object. Then we prove that the comma category under the direct image part of a morphism of locally finitely presentable category is still locally finitely presentable, and we give again an explicit description of its generator of finitely presented objects. We finally deduce that 2-category $\LFP$ has comma objects computed in $\Cat$.
We prove that the tensor category of quasi-coherent modules $\mathsf{Qcoh}(X \times_S Y)$ on a fiber product of quasi-compact quasi-separated schemes is the bicategorical pushout of $\mathsf{Qcoh}(X)$ and $\mathsf{Qcoh}(Y)$ over $\mathsf{Qcoh}(S)$ in the $2$-category of cocomplete linear tensor categories. In particular, $\mathsf{Qcoh}(X \times Y)$ is the bicategorical coproduct of $\mathsf{Qcoh}(X)$ and $\mathsf{Qcoh}(Y)$. For this we introduce idals, which can be seen as non-embedded ideals, and use them to study localizations of cocomplete tensor categories in general.
We introduce the notion of a definable category--a category equivalent to a full subcategory of a locally finitely presentable category that is closed under products, directed colimits and pure subobjects. Definable subcategories are precisely the finite-injectivity classes. We prove a $2$-duality between the $2$-category of small exact categories and the $2$-category of definable categories, and provide a new proof of its additive version. We further introduce a third vertex of the $2$-category of regular toposes and show that the diagram of $2$-(anti-)equivalences between three $2$-categorie…
We characterise regular Goursat categories through a specific stability property of regular epimorphisms with respect to pullbacks. Under the assumption of the existence of some pushouts this property can be also expressed as a restricted Beck-Chevalley condition, with respect to the fibration of points, for a special class of commutative squares. In the case of varieties of universal algebras these results give, in particular, a structural explanation of the existence of the ternary operations characterising $3$-permutable varieties of universal algebras.
We prove that the exactness of direct limits in an abelian category with products and an injective cogenerator J is equivalent to a condition on J which is well-known to characterize pure-injectivity in module categories, and we describe an application of this result to the tilting theory. We derive our result as a consequence of a more general characterization of when inverse limits in the Eilenberg-Moore category of a monad on the category of sets preserve regular epimorphisms.
We develop the theory of weak Fraisse categories, where the crucial concept is the weak amalgamation property, discovered relatively recently in model theory. We show that, in a suitable framework, every weak Fraisse category has its unique limit, a special object in a bigger category, characterized by certain variant of injectivity. This significantly extends the present theory of Fraisse limits.
In a locally $λ$-presentable category, with $λ$ a regular cardinal, classes of objects that are injective with respect to a family of morphisms whose domains and codomains are $λ$-presentable, are known to be characterized by their closure under products, $λ$-directed colimits and $λ$-pure subobjects. Replacing the strict commutativity of diagrams by "commutativity up to $\varepsilon$", this paper provides an "approximate version" of this characterization for categories enriched over metric spaces. It entails a detailed discussion of the needed $\varepsilon$-generalizations of the notion of $λ…
We investigate the extent to which the weak equivalences in a model category can be equipped with algebraic structure. We prove, for instance, that there exists a monad T such that a morphism of topological spaces admits T-algebra structure if and only it is a weak homotopy equivalence. Likewise for quasi-isomorphisms and many other examples. The basic trick is to consider injectivity in arrow categories. Using algebraic injectivity and cone injectivity we obtain general results about the extent to which the weak equivalences in a combinatorial model category can be equipped with algebraic str…
The goal of this paper is to demystify the role played by the Reedy category axioms in homotopy theory. With no assumed prerequisites beyond a healthy appetite for category theoretic arguments, we present streamlined proofs of a number of useful technical results, which are well known to folklore but difficult to find in the literature. While the results presented here are not new, our approach to their proofs is somewhat novel. Specifically, we reduce the much of the hard work involved to simpler computations involving weighted colimits and Leibniz (pushout-product) constructions. The general…
Given a double category D such that D_0 has pushouts, we characterize oplax/lax adjunctions between D and Cospan(D_0) such that the right adjoint is normal and restricts to the identity on D_0, where Cospan(D_0) denotes the double category on D_0 whose vertical morphisms are cospans. We show that such a pair exists if and only if D has companions, conjoints, and 1-cotabulators. The right adjoints are induced by the companions and conjoints, and the left adjoints by the 1-cotabulators. The notion of a 1-cotabulator is a common generalization of the symmetric algebra of a module and Artin-Wraith…
We characterize $t$-structures in stable $\infty$-categories as suitable quasicategorical factorization systems. More precisely we show that a $t$-structure $\mathfrak{t}$ on a stable $\infty$-category $\mathbf{C}$ is equivalent to a normal torsion theory $\mathbb{F}$ on $\mathbf{C}$, i.e. to a factorization system $\mathbb{F}=(\mathcal{E},\mathcal{M})$ where both classes satisfy the 3-for-2 cancellation property, and a certain compatibility with pullbacks/pushouts.
In this paper, we show that the Thomason model structure restricts to a Quillen equivalent cofibrantly generated model structure on the category of acyclic categories, whose generating cofibrations are the same as those generating the Thomason model structure. To understand the Thomason model structure, we need to have a closer look at the (barycentric) subdivision endofunctor on the category of simplicial sets. This functor has a well known right adjoint, called Kan's Ex functor. Taking the subdivision twice and then the fundamental category yields a left adjoint of an adjunction between the …
Let $\mathcal C$ be a category with finite colimits, and let $(\mathcal E,\mathcal M)$ be a factorisation system on $\mathcal C$ with $\mathcal M$ stable under pushouts. Writing $\mathcal C;\mathcal M^{\mathrm{op}}$ for the symmetric monoidal category with morphisms cospans of the form $\stackrel{c}\to \stackrel{m}\leftarrow$, where $c \in \mathcal C$ and $m \in \mathcal M$, we give method for constructing a category from a symmetric lax monoidal functor $F\colon (\mathcal C; \mathcal M^{\mathrm{op}},+) \to (\mathrm{Set},\times)$. A morphism in this category, termed a \emph{decorated corelatio…
After two papers on weak cubical categories and {\it collarable} cospans, respectively, we put things together and construct a {\it weak} cubical category of cubical {\it collared} cospans of topological spaces. We also build a second structure, called a {\it quasi} cubical category, formed of arbitrary cubical cospans concatenated by homotopy pushouts. This structure, simpler but weaker, has {\it lax} identities. It contains a similar framework for cobordisms of manifolds with corners and could therefore be the basis to extend the study of TQFT's of Part II to higher cubical degree.
For any ring R we construct two triangulated categories, each admitting a functor from R-modules that sends projective and injective modules to 0. When R is a quasi-Frobenius or Gorenstein ring, these triangulated categories agree with each other and with the usual stable module category. Our stable module categories are homotopy categories of Quillen model structures on the category of R-modules. These model categories involve generalizations of Gorenstein projective and injective modules that we derive by replacing finitely presented modules by modules of type FP-infinity. Along the way, we …
For every $\infty$-category $\mathscr{C}$, there is a homotopy $n$-category $\mathrm{h}_n \mathscr{C}$ and a canonical functor $γ_n \colon \mathscr{C} \to \mathrm{h}_n \mathscr{C}$. We study these higher homotopy categories, especially in connection with the existence and preservation of (co)limits, by introducing a higher categorical notion of weak colimit. Using homotopy $n$-categories, we introduce the notion of an $n$-derivator and study the main examples arising from $\infty$-categories. Following the work of Maltsiniotis and Garkusha, we define $K$-theory for $\infty$-derivators and prov…
Projectivity and injectivity are fundamental notions in category theory. We consider natural weakenings termed semiprojectivity and semiinjectivity, and study these concepts in different categories. For example, in the category of metric spaces, (semi)injective objects are precisely the absolute (neighborhood) retracts. We show that the trivial group is the only semiinjective group, while every free product of a finitely presented group and a free group is semiprojective. To a compact, metric space $X$ we associate the commutative C*-algebra $C(X)$. This association is contravariant, whence se…
Let $f:G\to \mathrm{Pic}(R)$ be a map of $E_\infty$-groups, where $\mathrm{Pic}(R)$ denotes the Picard space of an $E_\infty$-ring spectrum $R$. We determine the tensor $X\otimes_R Mf$ of the Thom $E_\infty$-$R$-algebra $Mf$ with a space $X$; when $X$ is the circle, the tensor with $X$ is topological Hochschild homology over $R$. We use the theory of localizations of $\infty$-categories as a technical tool: we contribute to this theory an $\infty$-categorical analogue of Day's reflection theorem about closed symmetric monoidal structures on localizations, and we prove that for a smashing local…
Under mild assumptions, we construct the two Matlis additive category equivalences for an associative ring epimorphism $u\colon R\to U$. Assuming that the ring epimorphism is homological of flat/projective dimension $1$, we discuss the abelian categories of $u$-comodules and $u$-contramodules and construct the recollement of unbounded derived categories of $R$-modules, $U$-modules, and complexes of $R$-modules with $u$-co/contramodule cohomology. Further assumptions allow to describe the third category in the recollement as the unbounded derived category of the abelian categories of $u$-comodu…
This article develops several main results for a general theory of homological algebra in categories such as the category of sheaves of idempotent modules over a topos. In the analogy with the development of homological algebra for abelian categories the present paper should be viewed as the analogue of the development of homological algebra for abelian groups. Our selected prototype, the category Bmod of modules over the Boolean semifield B is the replacement for the category of abelian groups. We show that the semi-additive category Bmod fulfills analogues of the axioms AB1 and AB2 for abeli…
