Representation of relations by partial maps (Q1840740)

Let \({\mathcal C}\) be a finitely complete category in which the notions of subobjects, relations and partial morphisms are defined with respect to a class \({\mathcal M}\) of monomorphisms. This paper is concerned with the following representation (resp. nontrivial representation) of relations by morphisms (resp. partial morphisms): relations in \({\mathcal C}\) are said to be represented (resp. nontrivially represented), provided that, for any object \(B\), there exists an object \(PB\nrightarrow B\) (resp. \(P_0B)\) together with a relation \(\varepsilon_B :PB\) (resp. \(\varepsilon_B:P_0B\nrightarrow B)\) such that any relation \(r:A\nrightarrow B\) factors uniquely in the form \(r= \varepsilon_B \circ\xi_r\) where \(\xi_r: A\nrightarrow PB\) (resp. \(\xi_r:A \nrightarrow P_0B)\) is a morphism (resp. partial morphism). Sufficient conditions for the existence of such objects are given and the link with the existence of a right adjoint to the functor \({\mathcal C}\to {\mathcal R}el{\mathcal C}\) (resp. \({\mathcal P}art ({\mathcal C})\to {\mathcal R}el({\mathcal C}))\) is investigated.