Intrinsic Schreier-Mac Lane extension theorem. II: The case of action accessible categories (Q456846)

The authors extend the theory developed by \textit{D. Bourn} [Adv. Math. 217, No. 6, 2700--2735 (2008; Zbl 1151.18016)] for action representative categories to the context of exact action accessible categories [the first author and \textit{G. Janelidze}, Cah.\ Topol.\ Géom.\ Différ.\ Catég.\ 50, No. 3, 211--232 (2009; Zbl 1187.18011)]. The aim is to obtain a general categorical version of the so-called Schreier-Mac\,Lane extension theorem for groups [\textit{S. MacLane}, Homology. Berlin-Göttingen-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag (1963; Zbl 0133.26502)] which states that the class \(\mathrm{Ext}_{\phi}(Y,K)\) of (non-abelian) extensions between two (non-abelian) groups \(K\) and \(Y\) inducing the group homomorphism \(\phi: Y\rightarrow{\mathrm{Aut}(K)}/{\mathrm{Int}(K)}\) carries a simply transitive action of the abelian group \(\mathrm{Ext}_{\bar{\phi}}(Y,ZK)\), where \(ZK\) is the centre of \(K\) and \(\bar{\phi}: Y\rightarrow{\mathrm{Aut} (ZK)}/{\mathrm{Int}(ZK)}\) the induced group homomorphism. The present paper focuses on the extension from the action representative context to action accessible categories. Via the second author [Theory Appl. Categ. 23, 7--21 (2010; Zbl 1307.18015)], this allows to include all \textit{categories of interest} in the sense of [\textit{G. Orzech}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 2, 287--314 (1972; Zbl 0251.18016); ibid. 2, 315--340 (1972; Zbl 0251.18017)] as examples, so that the result is now also valid for, say, non-unitary rings, associative algebras and Leibniz algebras. The main technical difficulty lies in how extensions should be indexed: for a given extension \(f: X\rightarrow Y\) with kernel \(K\), the index is now a pair \((\underline{Q}_1,\phi)\), where \(\underline{Q}_1\) is the faithful groupoid universally associated with the kernel relation of \(f\) and \(\phi\) is the induced morphism \(Y\rightarrow \pi_0(\underline{Q}_1)\). The authors prove that the set of isomorphism classes of extensions with a given index \((\underline{Q}_1,\phi)\) is in bijection with the set of isomorphism classes of torsors on the groupoid \(\underline{D}_{1\phi}\) obtained by pulling back \(\underline{Q}_1\) along \(\phi\). As a consequence, for a certain induced morphism \(e_\phi\), there is a simply transitive action of the abelian group \(\mathrm{Ext}_{e_\phi}(Y,ZK)\) on the class \(\mathrm{Ext}_{(\underline{Q}_1,\phi)}(Y,K)\).