A tale of two categories: inductive groupoids and cross-connections (Q2078391)

Let \(E\) be a regular biordered set, \(\mathcal{G}\) an ordered groupoid and \(\epsilon\colon \mathcal{G}(E)\to \mathcal{G}\) an order preserving isomorphism satisfying some additional properties (\(\mathcal{G}(E)\) -- the set of all \(E\)-chains). Then \((\mathcal{G},\epsilon)\) is called an \textit{inductive groupoid}. Let \(\mathcal{C}\) and \(\mathcal{D}\) be normal categories. A \textit{cross-connection} from \(\mathcal{D}\) to \(\mathcal{C}\) is a triplet \((\mathcal{D}, \mathcal{C},\Gamma)\) (denoted by \(\Gamma\)), where \(\Gamma\colon \mathcal{D}\to N^*\mathcal{C}\) is a local isomorphism (\(N^*\mathcal{C}\) is the normal dual of a normal category \(\mathcal{C}\)) such that for every \(c\in v\mathcal{C}\) (\(v\mathcal{C}\) -- the set of objects of \(\mathcal{C}\)), there is some \(d\in v\mathcal{D}\) such that \(c\in M\Gamma(d)\) (\(M\Gamma(d)\) -- certain \(M\)-set of \(\Gamma(d)\)). The main result of the paper establishes category equivalence of the category \textbf{CC} of cross-connections and the category \textbf{IG} of inductive groupoids. More specifically, given a cross-connection \(\Gamma=(\mathcal{D,C};\Gamma\)), the authors construct an inductive groupoid \((\mathcal{G}_{\Gamma},\epsilon_{\Gamma})\) associated with \(\Gamma\) and show that the assignment \(\Gamma\mapsto (\mathcal{G}_{\Gamma},\epsilon_{\Gamma})\) together with suitable assignment of morphisms is a functor \(\mathbb{I}\colon\)\textbf{CC} \(\to\) \textbf{IG}. And, \textit{vice versa}, given an inductive groupoid \((\mathcal{G},\epsilon)\), a cross-connection \((\mathcal{R}_G,\mathcal{L}_G,\Gamma_G)\) and a functor \(\mathbb{C}\colon\)\textbf{IG} \(\to\) \textbf{CC} has been constructed, so that \(\mathbb{IC}\) is naturally isomorphic to the functor \(1_{\textbf{CC}}\) and \(\mathbb{CI}\) is naturally isomorphic to the functor \(1_{\textbf{IG}}\). The construction of \(\mathcal{R}_G\) and \(\mathcal{L}_G\) is in both cases achieved by building three separate categories ``responsible'' for inclusions, isomorphisms and retractions, respectively.