Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/iii/paper-17/6/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 17 6 ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A Cartesian closed category has finite products in a category and, for all , an exponential object with a natural bijectionEquivalently the functor has a right adjoint. Its counit of an adjunction is the evaluation map of an exponential object .
For the presheaf category, define the exponential in a presheaf category byFor , its restriction sends to . Composition of these restriction maps follows from composition of the , so this is a categorical presheaf. Define evaluation map of an exponential object byFor , naturality of givesThus is a natural transformation.
Given a natural transformation , define its currying byNaturality of proves that is a natural transformation . For , the same formula proves that is natural. Evaluating at gives .
Conversely, if and , thenby naturality of . Hence the two constructions are inverse and natural in . Products are available pointwise, including the terminal singleton presheaf, so the presheaf category is Cartesian closed. The exponential uses natural transformations out of ; simply exponentiating the individual values generally does not give this object.
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