Exact completion and representations in abelian categories (Q5947977)

Any category \({\mathcal C}\) has a universal reflexive coequalizer completion \({\mathcal C}_{\text{rc}}\) containing the full subcategory \({\mathcal C}\). If \({\mathcal C}\) has finite sums, then \({\mathcal C}_{\text{rc}}\) has finite colimits in a universal way. Any category \({\mathcal C}\) has a universal preregular completion \({\mathcal C}_{\text{preg}}\), i.e., is equipped with a stable epi-mono factorization structure, containing the full subcategory \({\mathcal C}\). Any category \({\mathcal C}\) with weak finite limits has a universal exact completion \({\mathcal C}_{\text{ex}}\) containing the full subcategory \({\mathcal C}\). The paper studies and uses the relations between \({\mathcal C}_{ \text{rc}}\), \({\mathcal C}_{\text{preg}}\) and \({\mathcal C}_{\text{ex}}\), to explain in particular Freyd's representation theorems for abelian and Frobenius categories. For instance, \({\mathcal C}_{\text{ex}}\), is a full subcategory of \({\mathcal C}_{\text{rc}}\), \({\mathcal C}\) is graph-Mal'cev if and only if \({\mathcal C}_{\text{ex}}\) is Mal'cev, and then \({\mathcal C}_{\text{rc}}= {\mathcal C}_{\text{ex}}\), \({\mathcal C}_{\text{preg}}= {\mathcal C}_{\text{ex}}\) if and only if morphisms of \({\mathcal C}\) are weak coequalizers and weak equivalence relations in \({\mathcal C}\) are weak kernel pairs, etc. Let \({\mathcal C}\) be an additive category in which morphisms have and are weak kernels and cokernels. Then \({\mathcal C}_{\text{preg}}\) is a Frobenius category, i.e., an abelian category with enough projective = injective objects, satisfying three different universal properties. If \({\mathcal T}\) is a triangulated category, then \({\mathcal T}_{\text{ex}}\) is the universal homological functor on \({\mathcal T}\).