Categorical extension of dualities: from Stone to de Vries and beyond. I (Q2121604)

Given a Stone-type dual equivalence \(\mathcal{A}^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow \mathcal{X}\) and a full embedding \(\mathcal{X} \hookrightarrow \mathcal{Y}\), the authors propose a natural construction for a category \(\mathcal{B}\), into which \(\mathcal{A}\) may be fully embedded, allowing for an extension to a dual equivalence \(\mathcal{B}^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow \mathcal{Y}\). A key ingredient to the definition of \(\mathcal{B}\) as a quotient of a comma category \(C(\mathcal{A},\mathcal{P},\mathcal{X})/\sim\) is the notion of an \(\mathcal{X}\)\textit{-covering class} \(\mathcal{P}\) of morphisms in \(\mathcal{Y}\), which is an abstraction of projective covers (absolutes). The framework is applied to establish new proofs for known dualities, eventually presenting ``mediating'' categories of independent interest: (1) The approach to the de Vries duality between de Vries algebras and compact Hausdorff spaces starts from the duality \(\textbf{CBoo}^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow \textbf{EKH}\) of complete Boolean algebras and extremally disconnected compact Hausdorff spaces, and yields an intermediate equivalent category \(\textbf{deV}^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow (\textbf{deVBoo}/\sim)^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow \textbf{KHaus}\) of de Vries algebras with handier morphisms. (2) The Fedorchuk duality \(\textbf{Fed}^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow \textbf{KHaus}_{\mathrm{q-open}}\) is obtained from the duality \((\textbf{CBoo}_{\mathrm{sup}})^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow \textbf{EKH}_{\mathrm{open}}\) having restrictions to suprema-preserving homomorphisms and open continuous mappings, as outlined in [\textit{G. Dimov} et al., Topology Appl. 281, Article ID 107207, 26 p. (2020; Zbl 1457.54016)]. (3) Employing a hom representation of the de Vries duality and a construction essentially dual to that of (1), a duality theorem for the category of Tychonoff spaces from [\textit{G. Bezhanishvili} et al., ibid. 257, 85--105 (2019; Zbl 1412.54034)] is obtained as the composite of the equivalences \(\textbf{UBdeV}^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow \textbf{UdeV}^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow D(\mathcal{A},\mathcal{J},\mathcal{X})^{\mathrm{op}} \longleftrightarrow \textbf{Tych}\), where \(\textbf{UBdeV}\) denotes the category of so-called universal Boolean de Vries extensions and \(\textbf{UdeV}\) that of universal de Vries pairs.