Cauchy completeness, lax epimorphisms and effective descent for split fibrations (Q6178477)

This paper aims to extend \textit{M. Sobral}'s [Appl. Categ. Struct. 12, No. 5--6, 527--535 (2004; Zbl 1085.18002)] techniques and viewpoint on discrete (op)fibrations, studying the case of the indexed category \begin{align*} \mathcal{F} & :\mathsf{Cat}^{\mathrm{op}}\rightarrow\mathsf{CAT}\\ e & \mapsto\mathsf{CAT}\left( e,\mathsf{Cat}\right) \end{align*} By Grothendieck's construction, it correponds to the indexed category of split opfibrations, which is another glaring example of an indexed category that does not abide by the Beck-Chevalley condition. The synopsis of the paper goes as follows. \begin{itemize} \item[\S 2] shows how the problem of studying effective -descent morphisms can be reduced to the study of the lax codescent factorization given by the universal property of the weighted colimit called \textit{lax codescent category} [\textit{S. Lack}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 175, No. 1--3, 223--241 (2002; Zbl 1142.18301)]. \item[\S 3] thoroughly studies the characterization of fully faithful lax epimorphisms in \(\mathcal{V}\)-\(\mathsf{Cat}\), showing its relation with the Cauchy completion pseudofunctor. \item[\S 4] establishes that a morphism is of (effective) \(\mathcal{F} \)-discent iff it is of (effective) \(\mathcal{F}_{D}\)-discent, which means that Sobral's characterization can be plainly extended to the case of the indexed category of split fibrations. The section is concluded by discussing a straightforward example related to the well-known fact that the indexed category does not abide by the Beck-Chevalley condition. \item[\S 5] gives a brief account of some problems following the line of this work. \end{itemize}