On the form of subobjects in semi-abelian and regular protomodular categories (Q2254581)

The aim of the author is to characterize the regular categories which are semi-abelian or protomodular via their form of subobjects. A form of a category \(\mathbb{C}\) is a functor \(\mathbb{C}\to \mathrm{Gls}\) towards the category \(\mathrm{Gls}\) defined as follows: the objects are the (possibly large) ordered set; a map from \(X\) to \(Y\) is an adjunction from \(X\) to \(Y\); composition of maps is defined as the usual composition of adjunctions. The form of subobjects of a category \(\mathbb{C}\) is the functor mapping an object \(X\) of \(\mathbb{C}\) to the ordered class of subobjects of \(X\) and a morphism of \(\mathbb{C}\) to the usual direct-inverse image adjunction. The two main results of this paper are: 1) the form of subobjects of a regular category \(\mathbb{C}\) is cartesian if and only if \(\mathbb{C}\) is protomodular; 2) a regular category is semi-abelian if and only if it is pointed, has binary sums (and products), and has a stable Cartesian form of subobjects. The paper ends up with a Five Lemma in a cartesian form, showing how to extend diagram chasing techniques to cartesian forms.