Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 18 6 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
We prove full faithfulness from counit coequalizers. Let and let be an monad algebra morphism. ThusSet . Its composites with the two arrows of the printed presentation are equal: naturality of givesIn the last equality we used naturality at . The coequalizer property therefore gives a unique satisfying .
Apply to that identity. The algebra-morphism equation gives . The triangle identity makes a split epimorphism with section , so . This proves fullness of .
If have , naturality gives . The counit is epic since it is a coequalizer, so . Thus is a faithful functor. Both parallel arrows matter: the converted TeX loses the second one, , which is visible in the original PDF.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 18 7 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
The crude monadicity theorem in its reflexive-coequalizer form says: if , is a conservative functor, has reflexive coequalizers, and preserves them, then the Eilenberg-Moore comparison functor , for , is an equivalence of categories. Requiring all coequalizers to exist and be preserved is a stronger sufficient form.
For an algebra , form in the coequalizerThe pair is a reflexive pair with common section : both composites are the identity by the algebra unit law and the triangle identity. An arrow transposes to . The two composites and transpose to and , respectively. Indeed the latter transpose is , while by counit naturality. Thus equalizes the pair exactly when is an monad algebra morphism . The coequalizer property gives natural bijectionsThese define on arrows by uniqueness, so . Its unit has underlying arrow .
By preservation, coequalizes and in . The action is a split coequalizer of that pair: take and , with and . Thus there is a unique isomorphism with . We have . AlsoConsequently , and epimorphic cancellation gives . The adjunction unit is an monad algebra morphism; its invertible underlying arrow has an algebra-morphism inverse. Thus the unit of is an isomorphism.
For its counit , the triangle identity gives . Hence , and therefore , is an isomorphism. Since is a conservative functor, is an isomorphism too. Both unit and counit of are invertible, which proves the claimed equivalence. This proof uses only reflexive coequalizers in and split coequalizers in .
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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 74 6 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
In a small regular category , the regular coverage has one-arrow covers: each regular epimorphism is a covering family by itself. Identity maps, composites and pullbacks of such arrows are again covers, so this is a basis for a Grothendieck topology. A presheaf is a sheaf precisely when every compatible section over a covering arrow descends uniquely along that arrow.
It is subcanonical. A section of the representable presheaf over is a map . Its matching condition is on the kernel pair . Since a regular epimorphism is the coequalizer of its kernel pair, there is a unique with . This is exactly the sheaf condition for .
For a subfunctor of a regular-coverage sheaf, define local membership byThis is a subfunctor. If and witnesses membership, pull back along ; the resulting cover of witnesses membership of , because is stable under restriction.
It is a sheaf as well. Let cover and let satisfy the kernel-pair matching condition. The sheaf gives a unique with . Choose a cover with . The composite is a cover of and witnesses . Uniqueness comes from . Thus the inclusion is a mono between sheaves and is closed for the associated local operator.
Moreover, any closed subobject containing is itself a sheaf. If , its restriction along a witnessing cover lies in , and the sheaf condition for descends it to a section in . Its image in is by uniqueness. Hence is the least closed subobject containing , andThis proves the local membership closure for the regular coverage, with a single regular epimorphism as witness.
Suppose is the union, in the sheaf topos, of a family of subsheaves . The union in presheaves is the pointwise union ; its closure is the union in sheaves. Thus . A witnessing cover belongs to for one index . The two restrictions of to its kernel pair agree. Since is a subsheaf, this matching section descends in to . Every map is the restriction of along , so . Therefore every representable sheaf is irreducible, even with respect to arbitrary unions. There are no empty covering families in this coverage, and also shows that the representable cannot be initial.
Finally, in the regular syntactic category of a regular theory, the context formula defines an object . Each formula defines a mono , and the associated representable subsheaf is its interpretation inside in the generic model. A derivation of the coherent disjunction says that these finitely many subsheaves have union . Irreducibility gives for some . The Yoneda embedding is full and faithful, since the coverage is subcanonical, and therefore reflects this isomorphism. Hence is invertible in the syntactic category: entails . ThusThe disjunction is an outer coherent conclusion; the theory and all constituent formulas are regular. This disjunction property of regular theories follows from single-arrow descent, rather than from ordinary first-order compactness.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 18 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A monomorphism is a morphism such that implies for every pair . Dually, an epimorphism satisfies . A regular epimorphism is a coequalizer of some parallel pair. An isomorphism has a two-sided inverse.
For a product in a category, write for its categorical diagonal. Since , equality gives . Thus the diagonal is a monomorphism, indeed a split monomorphism.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 18 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Here use the left lifting property against monomorphisms as the definition of “strong”; epimorphicity will be established separately. In a lifting square write , , and , with and a monomorphism. Any two lifts agree because .
First let be the coequalizer of . Every coequalizer is an epimorphism: if , the uniqueness clause for the coequalizer applied to this common composite gives . Moreover,so by monomorphism cancellation. The coequalizer therefore supplies with . Then , and epimorphism cancellation gives . This proves that regular epimorphisms are strong epimorphisms.
If is also a monomorphism, take , and . Its lift satisfies and . Hence monic lifting-only strong morphisms are invertible.
Next suppose has the left lifting property against monomorphisms. Given a lifting square for , with , precompose its top arrow with . A lift for gives with and . Crucially, one does not cancel : instead , and the monomorphism gives . Thus the right factor of a strong composite is strong, proving right-factor cancellation for lifting-only strong morphisms.
Finally, in with strong and monic, the preceding result makes strong. The monic-strong argument then makes an isomorphism. None of these arguments assumed that a lifting-only strong morphism was already epic.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 18 6 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
For an algebra for a monad , consider the fork in the Eilenberg-Moore categoryHere is the counit at , and . The arrow is an algebra morphism by , which also says that it coequalizes the two arrows.
Let be an algebra morphism with . Define . Naturality of at givesSince is an algebra morphism,Thus is an algebra morphism with . Any other such factorization satisfies . This proves the full coequalizer universal property inside the algebra category.
The pair is moreover a reflexive pair: its common section is , with underlying map , because and . Hence every monad algebra is a reflexive coequalizer of free algebras. This reflexive free-algebra presentation of a monad algebra needs no general existence theorem for arbitrary algebra-category colimits.