EP morphisms (Q1061212)

Morphisms \(\phi\) on a category with involution \({}^*\) are studied which allow essentially unique epic-monic factorizations for \(\phi\) and \(\phi^*\) together with certain invertibility conditions on the monic and epic factors. It is shown that for such a morphism (called an EP morphism) the concepts of group inverse and Moore-Penrose inverse coincide. Conversely, if for any morphism the group and Moore-Penrose inverse coincide, then the underlying category can be extended to one where \(\phi\) is an EP morphism. Moreover subcategories with involution of categories with an epic-monic factorization are classified and more special results on block diagonalizing \(\phi\) are obtained for additive categories and in particular for square matrices over principal ideal domains with an involution.