Groups up to congruence relation and from categorical groups to c-crossed modules (Q2228319)

This paper explores a notion of \textit{group up to congruence relation}. The authors introduce a category, \(\widetilde{Sets}\), in which an object, \(X_R\), is a set, \(X\), together with an equivalence relation, \(R\), defined on it, with morphisms being functions compatible with the relations. A group up to congruence relation or, simply a \textit{c-group}, is then an object, \(G_R\), in this category together with a binary operation written \[+:(G\times G)_{R\times R}\to G_R,\] which is a morphism in the category, \(\widetilde{Sets}\), such that \begin{itemize} \item for all \(a,b,c \in G_R\), \(a+(b+c)\sim_R (a+b)+c\); \item there is an element, \(0\), in \(G_R\) such that, for all \(a\in G_R\), \[a+0\sim_R a\sim_R a+0;\] \item[]\hspace{-9mm} and \item for each \(a\in G_R\), there is an element, \(-a\), such that \[a+(-a)\sim_R 0\sim_R (-a)+a.\] \end{itemize} In the paper, the notion of a c-group is motivated by several examples, both algebraic and topological, and then some necessary basic theory is developed, After that the authors define analogues of extensions, group actions and crossed modules in the category of c-groups before examining the question of the relationship between categorical groups (also known as gr-categories or monoidal groupoids) and c-crossed modules, extending the well known equivalence of Brown and Spencer between strict categorical groups and crossed modules. Here they prove that every categorical group gives rise to a cssc-crossed module, that is a \textit{connected, strict and special} c-crossed modules, where these technical conditions are defined in detail in section 5 of the paper. The results obtained in this paper will be applied in a sequel that examines an equivalence between the category of categorical groups and this special class of c-crossed modules.