Regular and relational categories: Revisiting 'Cartesian bicategories I'

arXiv1909.00069MaRDI QIDQ6324465FDOQ6324465

Authors: Brendan Fong, David I. Spivak 

Publication date: 30 August 2019

Abstract: Regular logic is the fragment of first order logic generated by $=$, $op$, $wedge$, and $exists$. A key feature of this logic is that it is the minimal fragment required to express composition of binary relations; another is that it is the internal logic of regular categories. The link between these two facts is that in any regular category, one may construct a notion of binary relation using jointly-monic spans; this results in what is known as the bicategory of relations of the regular category. In this paper we provide a direct axiomatization of bicategories of relations, which we term relational po-categories, reinterpreting the earlier work of Carboni and Walters along these lines. Our main contribution is an explicit proof that the 2-category of regular categories is equivalent to that of relational po-categories. Throughout, we emphasize the graphical nature of relational po-categories.

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to category theory (18-01) Categories of spans/cospans, relations, or partial maps (18B10)

This page was built for publication: Regular and relational categories: Revisiting 'Cartesian bicategories I'

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q6324465)