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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Schwarz, Florian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15807
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author Schwarz, Florian
author_facet Schwarz, Florian
contents This paper explores a new perspective on the universality of the vertical lift in tangent categories by presenting a categorification of the dimension of smooth manifolds. The universality of the vertical lift is a key part of the axioms of a tangent category as presented in [4]. The categorical dimension presented in this paper provides insight into the nature of this property. The main result is Theorem 3.7, showing that if it exists, the dimension of the tangent bundle must fulfill an equation relating the dimension of the tangent bundle to the dimension of the base. In particular, when the dimension function is a strong tangent dimension, Theorem 3.8 shows that the dimension of the tangent bundles is either twice the dimension of the base, or equal to the dimension of the base. Many examples of dimension functions are provided to demonstrate the utility of the definition. In particular, a consequence of Theorem 3.7 is that there are limitations on which functors may be tangent bundle endofunctors for a category. We show that this means that there are no non-trivial tangent structures on sets, as an example.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_15807
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The dimension of the tangent bundle and the universality of the vertical lift
Schwarz, Florian
Category Theory
18F40
This paper explores a new perspective on the universality of the vertical lift in tangent categories by presenting a categorification of the dimension of smooth manifolds. The universality of the vertical lift is a key part of the axioms of a tangent category as presented in [4]. The categorical dimension presented in this paper provides insight into the nature of this property. The main result is Theorem 3.7, showing that if it exists, the dimension of the tangent bundle must fulfill an equation relating the dimension of the tangent bundle to the dimension of the base. In particular, when the dimension function is a strong tangent dimension, Theorem 3.8 shows that the dimension of the tangent bundles is either twice the dimension of the base, or equal to the dimension of the base. Many examples of dimension functions are provided to demonstrate the utility of the definition. In particular, a consequence of Theorem 3.7 is that there are limitations on which functors may be tangent bundle endofunctors for a category. We show that this means that there are no non-trivial tangent structures on sets, as an example.
title The dimension of the tangent bundle and the universality of the vertical lift
topic Category Theory
18F40
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15807