Kan extensions are partial colimits (Q2156417)

The paper is devoted to the interpretation of Kan extensions as a kind of partial colimits. In Sect. 2 the pseudomonad \(\mathit{Diag}\) of diagrams is recalled with full details. Its underlying pseudofunctor maps a locally small category \(C\) to its 2-category of (small) diagrams in \(C\), whose objects are functors from a small category to \(C\). Aside to all the detailed proofs that \(\mathit{Diag}\) is indeed a pseudomonad, Theorem~2.7 (p. 702) is worth mentioning: it states that each cocomplete category with a choice of colimit for each diagram may be given the structure of a pseudoalgebra over \(\mathit{Diag}\). In Sect. 3 is defined the notion of image presheaf: for a diagram \(D\) in \(C\), it is the colimit of its composition with the Yoneda embedding of \(C\). In Sect. 4 is studied the pseudomonad of small presheaves. A presheaf is said to be small when it is naturally isomorphic to the image presheaf of a small diagram. The underlying pseudofunctor of the pseudomonad then associates to a locally small category \(C\) the category of small presheaves on \(C\). It is then shown that the image presheaf construction provides a morphism of pseudomonads from that of diagrams to that of small presheaves. In Sect. 5 are introduced the notions of partial evaluation of diagrams and of presheaves. Theorem~5.10 (p.~734) then provides the equivalence between a partial colimit of a small presheaf \(P\) and the image presheaf of the left Kan extension of a diagram with image presheaf \(P\). The paper also contains an appendix in order to make it self-contained and which is a detailed review of the notions of pseudomonads and their pseudoalgebras.