Stephen Lack

Introduction to extensive and distributive categories

Abstract In recent years, there has been considerable discussion as to the appropriate definition of distributive categories. Three definitions which have had some support are: (1) A category with finite sums and products such that the canonical map δ: A × B + A × C → A ×( B + C ) is an isomorphism (Walters). (2) A category with finite sums and products such that the canonical functor +: A / A × A / B → A /( A + B ) is an equivalence (Monro). (3) A category with finite sums and finite limits such that the canonical functor + of (2) is an equivalence (Lawvere and Schanuel). There has been some confusion as to which of these was the natural notion to consider. This resulted from the fact that there are actually two elementary notions being combined in the above three definitions. The first, to which we give the name distributivity , is exactly that of (1). The second notion, which we shall call extensivity , is that of a category with finite sums for which the canonical functor + of definitions (2) and (3) is an equivalence. Extensivity, although it implies the existence of certain pullbacks, is essentially a property of having well-behaved sums. It is the existence of these pullbacks which has caused the confusion. The connections between definition (1) and definitions (2) and (3) are that any extensive category with products is distributive in the first sense, and that any category satisfying (3) satisfies (1) locally. The purpose of this paper is to present some basic facts about extensive and distributive categories, and to discuss the relationships between the two notions.

Adhesive and quasiadhesive categories

We introduce adhesive categories, which are categories with structure ensuring that pushouts along monomorphisms are well-behaved, as well as quasiadhesive categories which restrict attention to regular monomorphisms. Many examples of graphical structures used in computer science are shown to be examples of adhesive and quasiadhesive categories. Double-pushout graph rewriting generalizes well to rewriting on arbitrary adhesive and quasiadhesive categories.

Restriction categories I: categories of partial maps

Given a category with a stable system of monics, one can form the corresponding category of partial maps. To each map in this category there is, on the domain of the map, an associated idempotent, which measures the degree of partiality. This structure is captured abstractly by the notion of a restriction category, in which every arrow is required to have such an associated idempotent. Categories with a stable system of monics, functors preserving this structure, and natural transformations which are cartesian with respect to the chosen monics, form a 2-category which we call MCat. The construction of categories of partial maps provides a 2-functor Par:Mcat→Cat. We show that Par can be made into an equivalence of 2-categories between MCat and a 2-category of restriction categories. The underlying ordinary functor Par&r0:Mcat&0 → Ca t0 of the above 2-functor Par turns out to be monadic, and, from this, we deduce the completeness and cocompleteness of the 2-categories of M-categories and of restriction categories. We also consider the problem of how to turn a formal system of subobjects into an actual system of subobjects. A formal system of subobjects is given by a functor into the category sLat of semilattices. This structure gives rise to a restriction category which, via the above equivalence of 2-categories, gives an M-category. This M-category contains the universal realization of the given formal subobjects as actual subobjects.

A 2-categories companion

This paper is a rather informal guide to some of the basic theory of 2-categories and bicategories, including notions of limit and colimit, 2-dimensional universal algebra, formal category theory, and nerves of bicategories.

A Quillen model structure for bicategories

A Quillen model structure on the category Gray-Cat of Gray-categories is described, for which the weak equivalences are the triequivalences. It is shown to restrict to the full subcategory Gray-Gpd of Gray-groupoids. This is used to provide a functorial and model-theoretic proof of the unpublished theorem of Joyal and Tierney that Gray-groupoids model homotopy 3-types. The model structure on Gray-Cat is conjectured to be Quillen equivalent to a model structure on the category Tricat of tricategories and strict homomorphisms of tricategories.

Codescent objects and coherence

Abstract We describe 2-categorical colimit notions called codescent objects of coherence data, and lax codescent objects of lax coherence data, and use them to study the inclusion, T -Alg s →Ps- T - Alg, of the 2-category of strict T -algebras and strict T -morphisms of a 2-monad T into the 2-category of pseudo T -algebras and pseudo T -morphisms; and similarly the inclusion T -Alg s →Lax- T -Alg l , where Lax- T -Alg l has lax algebras and lax morphisms rather than pseudo ones. We give sufficient conditions under which these inclusions have left adjoints. We give sufficient conditions under which the first inclusion has left adjoint for which the components of the unit are equivalences, so that every pseudo algebra is equivalent to a strict one.

Limits of small functors

Abstract For a small category K enriched over a suitable monoidal category V , the free completion of K under colimits is the presheaf category [ K op , V ] . If K is large, its free completion under colimits is the V -category P K of small presheaves on K , where a presheaf is small if it is a left Kan extension of some presheaf with small domain. We study the existence of limits and of monoidal closed structures on P K .

2-nerves for bicategories

We describe a Cat-valued nerve of bicategories, which associates to every bicategory a simplicial object in Cat, called the 2-nerve. We define a 2-category NHom whose objects are bicategories and whose 1-cells are normal homomorphisms of bicategories, in such a way that the 2-nerve construction becomes a full embedding of NHom in the 2-category of simplicial objects in Cat. This embedding has a left biadjoint, and we characterize its image. The 2-nerve of a bicategory is always a weak 2-category in the sense of Tamsamani, and we show that NHom is biequivalent to a certain 2-category whose objects are Tamsamani weak 2-categories.

Notions of Lawvere theory

Categorical universal algebra can be developed either using Lawvere theories (single-sorted finite product theories) or using monads, and the category of Lawvere theories is equivalent to the category of finitary monads on Set. We show how this equivalence, and the basic results of universal algebra, can be generalized in three ways: replacing Set by another category, working in an enriched setting, and by working with another class of limits than finite products.

Restriction categories III: colimits, partial limits and extensivity

A restriction category is an abstract formulation for a category of partial maps, defined in terms of certain specified idempotents called the restriction idempotents. All categories of partial maps are restriction categories; conversely, a restriction category is a category of partial maps if and only if the restriction idempotents split. Restriction categories facilitate reasoning about partial maps as they have a purely algebraic formulation. In this paper we consider colimits and limits in restriction categories. As the notion of restriction category is not self-dual, we should not expect colimits and limits in restriction categories to behave in the same manner. The notion of colimit in the restriction context is quite straightforward, but limits are more delicate. The suitable notion of limit turns out to be a kind of lax limit, satisfying certain extra properties. Of particular interest is the behaviour of the coproduct, both by itself and with respect to partial products. We explore various conditions under which the coproducts are ‘extensive’ in the sense that the total category (of the related partial map category) becomes an extensive category. When partial limits are present, they become ordinary limits in the total category. Thus, when the coproducts are extensive we obtain as the total category a lextensive category. This provides, in particular, a description of the extensive completion of a distributive category.