Relations in operational categories

DOI10.1016/S0022-4049(96)00166-1MaRDI QIDQ678847zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors J. Lambek

Publication date 27 July 1997

Published in Journal of Pure and Applied Algebra (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4049(96)00166-1

zbMATH Keywords

binary relation connecting homomorphism operational category partial equivalence relation two-square lemma

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Categories of spans/cospans, relations, or partial maps (18B10)

Review text

Ever since functions were declared to be universally defined and single valued, other binary relations have been pushed into the background of mathematics. A notable exception is the construction of the so-called connecting homomorphism in homological algebra. There are two well-known methods for constructing the connecting homomorphism in homological algebra. Either one constructs it as a binary relation which is shown to be universally defined and single valued, or one makes use of the so-called two-square lemma, which provides an isomorphism between two invariants associated with adjacent commutative squares. Both of these two constructions can be generalized to arbitrary `Goursat categories', namely operational categories satisfying the condition that the relative product of any relation with its converse is transitive. By an `operational category' we mean a category \({\mathcal C}\) accomplished by a category of set-valued functors from \({\mathcal C}\). In order to state the results, one has to define `relations' in operational categories and one has to generalize the notion of `exactness' from short sequences to forks and the notion of `commutativity' to squares in which two arrows are doubled. The proof of the general two-square lemma involves a construction which closely resembles that of `partial equivalence relation' in theoretical computer science and contains the latter as a special case.

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