No label defined (Q4707487)

The weak factorization systems of a Quillen model category give rise, via their lifting properties, to diagonalizations similar to those of ``real'' factorization systems; however, the diagonalizations generally fail to be unique. The authors consider the case in which the diagonalizations do happen to be unique; they name the resulting structure a Quillen factorization system. The first section of the paper reviews properties of ordinary factorization systems, and gives some examples. A simple but important example is the factorization system ([Iso,Mor],[Mor,Iso]) on the category \({\mathcal C}^2\) for any category \({\mathcal C}\); this is known to give the free factorization system over \({\mathcal C}\), a result that prefigures the main result of the paper. Next, the authors introduce the notion of a double factorization system \(({\mathcal E},{\mathcal J},{\mathcal M})\), permitting every arrow of a category to be factorized into an ``epi-like'' arrow, an ``iso-like'' arrow, and a ``mono-like'' arrow. Various basic results are proved for these, similar in nature to the standard results on factorization systems; and it is shown that such systems are very closely related to Quillen factorization systems. Finally, it is shown that, for any category \({\mathcal C}\), ([Iso, Mor, Mor], [Mor, Iso, Mor], [Mor, Mor, Iso]) is a Quillen factorization system on \({\mathcal C}^3\), and that this in fact yields the free Quillen factorization system over \({\mathcal C}\).