A note on Mal'tsev objects (Q7006439)

A variety of universal algebras \(\mathbb{V}\) is called a \textit{Mal'tsev variety} if its theory admits a ternary operation \(p\) satisfying the equations \(p(x; y; y) = x\) and \(p(x; x; y) = y\). A regular category \(\mathbb{C}\) is called a \textit{Mal'tsev category} if any pair of equivalence relations \(R\) and \(S\) in \(\mathbb{C}\) on a same object \(X\) is such that \(RS = SR\). An object \(Y\) of a finitaly complete category \(\mathbb{C}\) is called a \textit{Mal'tsev object} if the category of points over \(Y\) is a unital category. An object \(Y\) of \(\mathbb{C}\) is called a \textit{W-Mal'tsev object} if for every relation \(\langle r_1,r_2\rangle\colon R\to X\times Z\), the \texttt{Set}-relation \(\langle \mathbb{C}(Y,r_1),\mathbb{C}(Y,r_2)\rangle\colon \mathbb{C}(Y,R)\to \mathbb{C}(Y,X)\times \mathbb{C}(Y,Z)\) is difunctional (a homomorphic relation \(D\) from an algebra \(X\) to an algebra \(Z\) is \textit{difunctional} when \((x_1Dz_2\wedge x_2Dz_2\wedge x_2Dz_1)\Rightarrow x_1Dz_1)\). One of the sections of the article is devoted to the comparison of the concepts of Mal'tsev and W-Mal'tsev objects. For example, it is shown that W-Mal'tsev objects in the variety of monoids are precesely the groups. Let now \(V\) be a complete lattice equipped with a tensor product \(\otimes\) with unit \(k\) that distributes over arbitrary joins. A \textit{V-category} is a set \(X\) together with a map \(X\times X\to V\), such that for each \(x,x',x''\in X\), \(k\leq X(x,x)\) and \(X(x,x')\otimes X(x',x'')\leq X(x,x'')\), where \(X(x,y)\) denotes the image of \((x,y)\) in \(V\). W-Mal'tsev objects in \texttt{(V-Cat)}\(^{op}\) and in \texttt{((U,V)-Cat)}\(^{op}\) are described, where \texttt{V-Cat} is the category of V-categories and V-functors (maps \(f\colon X \to Y\) such that for all \(x;x'\in X\), \(X(x,x') \leq Y(f(x),f(x'))\)). \texttt{(U,V)-Cat} is the category of \((U,V)\)-categories and \((U,V)\)-functors (for an ultrafilter monad \(U\), \((U,V)\)-category is a set \(X\) together with a map \(UX\times X\to V\) satisfying certain inequalities).