Alphabeta Math

Limits and Colimits

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✓ 35 results · all verified · 1 also independently AI-judged
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1 · Prerequisites
2 · Logical flowchart

3 · Items

Definition

Constant diagrams, cones, cocones, and their morphisms

Definition

Limits and colimits as terminal cones and initial cocones, with existence and uniqueness in their universal properties

Theorem

Any two limits, or any two colimits, of one diagram are uniquely isomorphic compatibly with their structure maps

Proposition

A limiting cone for a diagram is exactly a colimiting cocone for the formally dual diagram in the opposite category

Proposition

Limits of empty diagrams are terminal objects, and colimits of empty diagrams are initial objects

Definition

Products and coproducts as limits and colimits of discrete diagrams, including their existence-and-uniqueness equations

Definition

Equalizers and coequalizers as limits and colimits of a parallel pair

Definition

Pullbacks and pushouts as limits and colimits of cospans and spans

Definition

Kernels and cokernels in a category with zero morphisms as equalizers and coequalizers

Lemma

The legs of a limiting cone are jointly monic, and the legs of a colimiting cocone are jointly epic

Corollary

Every equalizer is a monomorphism, and every coequalizer is an epimorphism

Lemma

A pullback of a monomorphism is a monomorphism, and a pushout of an epimorphism is an epimorphism

Lemma

Horizontally pasted commutative squares commute

Theorem

Pullback and pushout pasting, with cancellation of the square adjacent to the outer edge

Definition

Assuming Choice, cardinality of a small category and κ-small diagrams

Definition

Finite, small, and large limits and colimits; complete and cocomplete categories

Lemma

A cone over an identity diagram is weakly initial, and the identity diagram has a limit exactly when the category has an initial object

Theorem

Set has all small limits, realized as compatible tuples in a set-indexed product

Theorem

Set has all small colimits, realized as a quotient of a set-indexed disjoint union

Theorem

Every small limit can be constructed as an equalizer between products over the objects and arrows of the index category

Theorem

Every small colimit can be constructed as a coequalizer between coproducts over the arrows and objects of the index category

Corollary

A category is complete exactly when it has all small products and equalizers, and cocomplete exactly when it has all small coproducts and coequalizers

Theorem

Finite, nonempty finite, and connected finite (co)limit criteria in terms of products, equalizers, pullbacks, terminal objects, and their duals

Definition

Preservation, reflection, and creation of limits and colimits; continuous and cocontinuous functors

Lemma

A functor preserves a chosen limit exactly when its canonical comparison to the chosen target limit is an isomorphism, and dually for colimits

Proposition

Fully faithful functors reflect limits and colimits

Proposition

Equivalences preserve, reflect, and create limits and colimits in the isomorphism-invariant sense

Proposition

A functor that creates limits of a given shape lifts their existence and preserves the created limits, and dually for colimits

Theorem

Chosen limits and colimits of a fixed small shape assemble into limit and colimit functors

Remark

A limit for each diagram need not provide a chosen limit functor without a simultaneous choice of representatives

Theorem

Every covariantly representable functor to Set preserves all existing small limits

Corollary

Hom(X,−) is continuous, while Hom(−,X) sends every existing small colimit to a limit of sets

Theorem

For small source and index categories, chosen target limits and colimits compute the corresponding functor-category limits and colimits pointwise

Corollary

If A is small, then [A,C] is complete or cocomplete whenever C is respectively complete or cocomplete

Corollary

For a small category, the Yoneda functor preserves and reflects all existing small limits

Theorem

Iterated small limits commute: either order is canonically isomorphic to the limit over the product category

Definition

Filtered categories and filtered colimits

Lemma

Two representatives in a filtered colimit of sets are equal exactly when they become equal at one common later stage

Theorem

Filtered colimits commute with finite limits in Set

Definition

Final and initial functors via nonempty connected comma categories

Theorem

Assuming Choice, precomposition with a final functor does not change colimits, and precomposition with an initial functor does not change limits

Theorem

Grp is complete and cocomplete

Theorem

Top is complete and cocomplete, and its underlying-set functor preserves all small limits and colimits

Theorem

For every ring R, the category R-Mod is complete and cocomplete

Proposition

A poset category is complete exactly when every small family has an infimum, and cocomplete exactly when every small family has a supremum

Theorem

Assuming Choice, a small category with products or coproducts indexed by the cardinality of its morphism set is a preorder

Corollary

Assuming Choice, every small complete category and every small cocomplete category is a preorder

Sources