Categories by Kan extension

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteur principal: Spivak, David I.
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Spivak, David I.
author_facet Spivak, David I.
contents Categories can be identified -- up to isomorphism -- with polynomial comonads on Set. The left Kan extension of a functor along itself is always a comonad -- called the density comonad -- so it defines a category when its carrier is polynomial. We provide a number of generalizations of this to produce new categories from old, as well as from distributive laws of monads over comonads. For example, all Lawvere theories, all product completions of small categories, and the simplicial indexing category $Δ^{op}$ arise in this way. Another, seemingly much less well-known, example constructs a so-called selection category from a polynomial comonad in a way that's somehow dual to the construction of a Lawvere theory category from a monad; we'll discuss this in more detail. Along the way, we will see various constructions of non-polynomial comonads as well.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_21974
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Categories by Kan extension
Spivak, David I.
Category Theory
18A40, 18C15, 18C10, 18C20, 18C35
Categories can be identified -- up to isomorphism -- with polynomial comonads on Set. The left Kan extension of a functor along itself is always a comonad -- called the density comonad -- so it defines a category when its carrier is polynomial. We provide a number of generalizations of this to produce new categories from old, as well as from distributive laws of monads over comonads. For example, all Lawvere theories, all product completions of small categories, and the simplicial indexing category $Δ^{op}$ arise in this way. Another, seemingly much less well-known, example constructs a so-called selection category from a polynomial comonad in a way that's somehow dual to the construction of a Lawvere theory category from a monad; we'll discuss this in more detail. Along the way, we will see various constructions of non-polynomial comonads as well.
title Categories by Kan extension
topic Category Theory
18A40, 18C15, 18C10, 18C20, 18C35
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.21974