Subdirect products of preadditive categories and weak equivalences (Q2426124)

One of the first classical results of universal algebra is the famous theorem due to Birkhoff, according to which every algebra is a subdirect product of subdirectly irreducible algebras. In this paper, the authors study the notions of coproduct and subdirect product of preadditive categories and prove a Birkhoff type theorem showing that every skeletally small preadditive category is a subdirect product of subdirectly irreducible, skeletally small, preadditive categories.