On the categorical meaning of Hausdorff and Gromov distances. I.

Abstract: Hausdorff and Gromov distances are introduced and treated in the context of categories enriched over a commutative unital quantale V. The Hausdorff functor which, for every V-category X, provides the powerset of X with a suitable V-category structure, is part of a monad on V-Cat whose Eilenberg-Moore algebras are order-complete. The Gromov construction may be pursued for any endofunctor K of V-Cat. In order to define the Gromov "distance" between V-categories X and Y we use V-modules between X and Y, rather than V-category structures on the disjoint union of X and Y. Hence, we first provide a general extension theorem which, for any K, yields a lax extension K to the category V-Mod of V-categories, with V-modules as morphisms.

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\textit{F. W. Lawvere} [Rend. Sem. Mat. fis. Milano 43(1973), 135--166 (1974; Zbl 0335.18006), reprinted in Repr. Theory Appl. Categ. 2002, No.~1, 1--37, (2002; Zbl 1078.18501)] proposed to regard metric spaces as categories enriched over the symmetric monoidal closed category \(\mathbb{P} _{+}=\left( \left[ 0,\infty\right] ,+,0\right) \), and suggested [Rev. Colomb. Mat. 20, No.~3--4, 147--178 (1986; Zbl 0648.18001), reprinted in Repr. Theory Appl. Categ. 2005, No.~8, 1--24, (2005; Zbl 1072.18001)] that the Hausdorff and Gromov metrics should be developed for an arbitrary symmetric monoidal closed category \(\left(\mathcal{V},\otimes,k\right) \). In this paper the authors replace \(\mathbb{P}_{+}\) by a commutative and unital quantale \(\mathcal{V}\). The authors find that the guidance provided by enriched category theory [\textit{G. M. Kelly}, Lond. Math. Soc. Lect. Note Ser. 64 (1982; Zbl 0478.18005), reprinted in Repr. Theory Appl. Categ. 2005, No.~10, 1--136, (2005; Zbl 1086.18001)] is indispensable for answering such a question as which structure and properties of the extended non-negative real half-line allow for a meaningful treatment of Hausdorff and Gromov distances. So-called bimodules or distributors between \(\mathcal{V}\)-categories yield an elegant and powerful tool for their theory. They consider the Hausdorff monad of \(\mathcal{V}\mathrm{-Cat}\) and its lax extension to \(\mathcal{V}\)-modules, in which the Eilenberg-Moore categories are determined. The Gromov space of isomorphism classes of \(\mathcal{V}\)-categories, which is shown to carry internal monoid structures in the monoidal category \(\mathcal{V}\mathrm{-Cat}\), is presented as a colimit. The effects of symmetrization and the status of separation are also discussed. The fundamental question of transfer of Cauchy completeness from \(X\) to \(HX\), as well as the question of completeness of suitable subspaces of the Gromov space is relegated to a subsequent paper.

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