Existence of reflections and its applications (Q505377)

Recall that if \(\mathsf{C}\) is a subcategory of a category \(\mathsf{D}\) and \(X\) is a \(\mathsf{D}\)-object, then \(X\) is said to have a reflection in \(\mathsf{C}\) if there exist a \(\mathsf{C}\)-object \(R_{X}\) and a \(\mathsf{D}\)-morphism \(r_{X}:X \rightarrow R_{X}\) such that, for every \(\mathsf{C}\)-object \(Y\) and for every \(\mathsf{D}\)-morphism \(f:X \rightarrow Y\), there exists a unique \(\mathsf{C}\)-morphism \(\hat{f}: R_{X} \rightarrow Y\) such that \(\hat{f}\circ r_{X} = f\). A \(\mathsf{D}\)-morphism \(f\) is called a \(\mathsf{C}\)-epimorphism if the codomain of \(f\) is in \(\mathsf{C}\) and, for any two \(\mathsf{C}\)-morphisms \(g\) and \(h\), \(g \circ f = h \circ f\) implies \(g = h\). At first, the authors prove that, if \(\mathsf{C}\) has products and the forgetful functor from \(\mathsf{C}\) to \(\mathsf{D}\) preserves products, then a \(\mathsf{D}\)-object \(X\) has a reflection in \(\mathsf{C}\) if and only if it has a so-called \(\mathsf{C}\)-solution, i.e., a set \(\mathcal{E}\) of \(\mathsf{C}\)-epimorphisms with domain \(X\) such that, for every \(\mathsf{C}\)-object \(Y\) and for every \(\mathsf{D}\)-morphism \(f:X \rightarrow Y\), there exists a morphism \(e \in \mathcal{E}\) and a \(\mathsf{C}\)-morphism \(g\) such that \(g \circ e = f\). Then they show how this observation can be used to provide unifying and simple proofs of many classical (and some new) results concerning reflections. Among them are the Stone-Čech compactification of Tychonoff spaces, the existence of the free (Abelian) topological group, the Bohr compactification of topological groups, and the completion of uniform spaces.