Effective descent morphisms in star-regular categories (Q384297)

In the article [\textit{G. Janelidze} and \textit{M. Sobral}, Appl. Categ. Struct. 19, No. 1, 271--276 (2011; Zbl 1223.18007)], a regular category is called \textit{almost exact} when its regular epimorphisms coincide with the effective descent morphisms. The present article deals with finding sufficient conditions for this to happen in the star-regular context of [\textit{M. Gran} et al., J. Pure Appl. Algebra 216, No. 8--9, 1905--1919 (2012; Zbl 1257.18011)]. Its main result states that in any semi-effective star-regular category with enough trivial objects, the class of regular epimorphisms coincides with the class of effective descent morphisms. A star-regular category is called \textit{semi-effective} when, given any equivalence relation \(R\), if the induced star \(R^{*}\) is a retract of some kernel star \(\mathrm{Eq}(f)^{*}\), then \(R^{*}\) itself is a kernel star. The condition of \textit{having enough trivial objects}, introduced in [\textit{M. Gran} et al., Homology Homotopy Appl. 14, No. 2, 1--22 (2012; Zbl 1258.18011)], requires that for any relation \((r_{1},r_{2}): R\rightrightarrows X\) and any arrow \(f: K\rightarrow R\) such that the composites \(r_{1}\circ f\) and \(r_{2}\circ f\) are null, also \(f\) is null. Both in the total context and in the pointed context, the latter condition always holds. In the total context, the efficiently regular categories of [\textit{D. Bourn}, J. Algebra 308, No. 1, 414--443 (2007; Zbl 1134.18004)] are semi-effective star-regular. In the pointed context, the authors find the categories with a good theory of ideals of [Zbl 1257.18011] and the almost abelian categories of [\textit{W. Rump}, Cah. Topologie Géom. Différ. Catégoriques 42, No. 3, 163--225 (2001; Zbl 1004.18009)] as examples.