A note on the ``Smith is Huq'' condition (Q453593)

Internal crossed modules in a semiabelian category \(\mathcal A\) correspond to internal groupoids in \(\mathcal A\). In group theory, it is well known that crossed modules correspond just to reflexive graphs equipped with a star-multiplication, but it is not true for any semiabelian category. Thus it is natural to ask under which conditions on \(\mathcal A\) the star-multiplicative graphs in \(\mathcal A\) are internal groupoids. This is termed in this paper as the (SM) condition. The object of this paper is to prove the equivalence between the (SM) condition and the so called here (SH) condition. This last condition asserts that in \(\mathcal A\) two equivalence relations commute if and only if their normalizations commute. It arises after the notions of commutator of internal effective equivalence relations and of normal subobjects and the known equivalence between the normal subobjects of an object and the effective equivalence relations on it. Also, it arises with known results about the commutativity of two equivalence relations and their respective normalizations. The equivalence between the (SM) and (SH) conditions answers a question asked by George Janelidze.