No label defined (Q4040334)

Factorizations and the notion of initiality have proved to be very powerful tools in the investigation and classification of general types of categories as well as in the investigation of individual categories. These two notions were of paramount importance in the development of the theory of topological functors by Hušek, Wyler, Herrlich, Brümmer, Hoffmann et. al. Semi-topological functors, as a natural and important generalization of topological and algebraic ones, could only be introduced through a systematic use of these notions by \textit{W. Tholen} [Math. Nachr. 114, 63-85 (1983; Zbl 0553.18003); J. Pure Appl. Algebra 15, 53-73 (1979; Zbl 0413.18001)]. In this thesis the notions of factorization and initiality are introduced into enriched category theory, i.e. for \({\mathcal V}\)-categories, where \({\mathcal V}\) is a symmetric monoidal closed category. After the introductory Chapter 1, Chapter 2 deals with the orthogonality relation of factorizations in symmetric monoidal closed categories. The author succeeds in proving statements analogous to those in the classical case and gives an interesting proof for the \({\mathcal V}\)-analogue of the classical theorem that the existence of \({\mathcal E}\)-factorizations in a subcategory \({\mathcal C}\) is equivalent to the coreflexivity of the subcategory of \({\mathcal E}\)-morphisms in the category of \({\mathcal C}\)- morphisms (cf. 2.2.8). Chapter 3 deals with semi-initial and semi-final \({\mathcal V}\)-functors. In enriched category theory these two notions are not equivalent. The equivalence holds only under additional assumptions and the proof is far from being trivial (cf. 3.2.12). The results on lifting properties of (co-) limits and existence statements on left adjoints show that the notions used here are adequate. The author also succeeds in giving an appropriate generalization of Q-orthogonal functors and to prove, for \({\mathcal V}\)-functors, the characterization of semi-topological functors as full reflexive restrictions of topological functors. At the end of Chapter 3 the lifting of strong completeness properties of \({\mathcal V}\)-categories along \({\mathcal V}\)-functors is investigated. These properties were first considered by \textit{G. M. Kelly} [cf. Cah. Topologie Géom. Différ. Catégoriques 27, 109-132 (1986; Zbl 0593.18007)]. The lifting properties proved here by the author, enlarge the collection of interesting and relevant examples considerably, as is shown in Chapter 4, which is exclusively dedicated to a substantial number of interesting examples. It seems certain to the referee that quite a number of the results in this paper will have a considerable influence on the further development of enriched category theory.