Logical functor 2026-10-07
A logical functor between elementary toposes preserves finite limits, exponential objects and the subobject classifier, with their canonical comparison maps. It therefore preserves power objects and the double-power-object monad. If it has a left adjoint, power-object monadicity and the adjoint lifting theorem for monad algebra functors give it a right adjoint as well.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 24 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the elementary, or weak, topos axioms: finite limits and a power object for every object , naturally representing . No arbitrary products or coproducts are assumed. In particular is the subobject classifier. Inverse image of the membership relation defines for .
Interchanging the factors in a relation gives natural bijectionsThus the contravariant power-object functor has left adjoint . Its adjunction unit sends a generalized element to the predicate on given by membership of .
This unit is monic. If have the same image under , membership of and agrees in every -parameterized subobject of . Apply this to the graph of in : membership of is true, so membership of is true, which means . This argument uses parameterized relations, not an assumption that global elements detect morphisms.
The functor reflects isomorphisms. Suppose is invertible. Then is invertible, and naturality together with monicity of shows that is monic. Regard as a subobject of . Its inverse image along itself is the whole of , just as for the whole subobject of . Those two subobjects correspond to maps ; since is monic, they coincide. Therefore the subobject is all of , and is an isomorphism.
We now prove the preservation condition for the crude monadicity theorem. A reflexive pair in is a coreflexive pair in , with for some . Let be its equalizer. For any monomorphism , define on power objects by composing a parameterized subobject with ; no general image construction is needed because is monic. Inverse image followed by this extension obeys .
Here both are monic. For a parameterized subobject of , an element belongs to exactly when for some . Applying gives , so this condition is precisely and . Consequently, as morphisms of power objects,If equalizes , these identities giveIt therefore factors uniquely through , which is a split epimorphism with section . Since , also equalizes . Hence is their coequalizer. This proves explicitly that power objects turn coreflexive equalizers into coequalizers.
Finite equalizers in give all coequalizers of reflexive pairs in , and we have shown that preserves them and reflects isomorphisms. The crude monadicity theorem now yields
Fix a set of cardinality . If has -indexed products in a category, its Eilenberg-Moore category for the double-power monad has them, since the forgetful functor creates existing limits. The displayed equivalence then gives -products in , hence -coproducts in a category in .
For the converse, suppose those coproducts exist. The diagonal is a logical functor, because all the elementary topos structure in is pointwise, and it has left adjoint . Apply power-object monadicity to both toposes. Under their monadic identifications, is the lift of to the double-power Eilenberg-Moore categories. The base functor is a right adjoint to , so the adjoint lifting theorem for monad algebra functors gives a left adjoint to its algebra lift. Its required reflexive coequalizers exist in , since they are opposites of finite equalizers in . Taking opposites gives a right adjoint to , which is exactly the -product functor. Thus the products and coproducts of fixed cardinality in a topos satisfy
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 74 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Take the definition of an elementary topos as a category with finite limits, exponential objects and a subobject classifier . Its power object is , and is precomposition with . Transposing a predicate on in either variable givesThus is left adjoint to the contravariant power-object functor .
Here are the remaining hypotheses for the crude monadicity theorem, obtained from those topos axioms. The unit of this adjunction is , internally . It is monic: if two such evaluations agree, evaluate on the singleton predicate classified by the diagonal to obtain . If is invertible, naturality therefore makes monic. The characteristic map of this mono, regarded as a global element of , pulls back along to the everywhere-true predicate on . Since is monic, that characteristic map was already everywhere true on . The classifier pullback then says that is invertible. Hence is a conservative functor.
It remains to check preservation of reflexive coequalizers in the opposite category. Equivalently, let be a coreflexive pair, with satisfying , and let be their equalizer. Both and are monic. For any mono , there is a direct-image map between power objects: a subobject is sent to its composite with . This uses only classification of monos, not the prior existence of general images or colimits. We have .
For a predicate , consider its direct image along . Its pullbacks along the two sections areTo verify the second equality, with implies after applying , and therefore ; conversely supplies that witness. This argument works for parameterized subobjects as well, so it is an equality of arrows between power objects.
Now if satisfies , then . Hence is its unique factorization through , uniqueness following from the section . Thereforeis a coequalizer. Finite limits supply every required coreflexive equalizer. The right adjoint reflects isomorphisms and preserves the corresponding reflexive coequalizers, so is monadic. In particular is equivalent to the Eilenberg-Moore category of the double-power-object monad on .
Let be a logical functor, and suppose . Preservation of exponentials and the classifier gives , compatibly with the units, counits and resulting monads. Thus is the algebra functor lifting the base functor through the two monadic power-object functors. The adjoint lifting theorem for monad algebra functors applies to the base adjunction : its required coequalizers exist in , because has finite equalizers. It supplies a left adjoint . Taking opposites gives , the required right adjoint to .
Preserving either of the two logical structures by itself is insufficient. For the exponential example take constant at . The constant-empty functor is its left adjoint, since both relevant hom-sets are singletons. Its canonical exponential comparison is , so it preserves exponentials. It has no right adjoint: a functor with a right adjoint would preserve the initial object, whereas .
For the classifier example take to be fixed points. The trivial-action functor is left adjoint to . In a group-action topos the classifier is the trivial-action two-element set, since invariant subsets have ordinary equivariant characteristic maps. Therefore preserves the classifier, its true arrow and the terminal object. But does not preserve the coequalizer of the identity and the nontrivial translation on the regular two-element group set: that coequalizer is , while the fixed-point sets of the domain and codomain of the parallel pair are empty. Their set-theoretic coequalizer is empty, not . Thus has no right adjoint.
For an elementary topos, existence of products in a category indexed by a fixed set is equivalent to existence of the corresponding coproducts in a category. The power-object monadicity equivalence gives the forward direction because Eilenberg-Moore categories create limits. For the converse, the diagonal into the pointwise product category is a logical functor. A coproduct is its left adjoint; the adjoint lifting theorem for monad algebra functors, applied through power-object monadicity, then gives its right adjoint, namely the product. The required reflexive coequalizers on the algebra side are opposites of finite equalizers in the topos.