Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 119 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
First supply the unlettered preliminaries. Assuming the relevant categorical limits and colimits exist, limits of shape commute with colimits of shape when for every functor the canonical mapis an isomorphism. To construct this map, for each compose the limiting projections with the th colimit injections. They form an -cone, giving a map into the right-hand categorical limit; these maps form a -cocone, giving the comparison. This specifies the actual comparison required for commutation of limits and colimits.
A group regarded as a one-object category has its group elements as arrows, with composition given by multiplication. A functor from it to the Category of sets is a group action. For a -set , a cone consists of a map into whose values are fixed by every . Hence its categorical limit is the set of fixed points of a group action. A cocone is a map out of constant on orbits of a group action; its universal quotient is the orbit set. Thus
A diagram in a category is a set with commuting group actions of and . Its limit–colimit comparison isCommutation makes stable under . The comparison is always injective: if two -fixed representatives are in the same -orbit in , they already determine the same orbit in .
For surjectivity under the finite coprime hypotheses, let be an -orbit fixed setwise by . Its size divides by the orbit-stabilizer theorem. Since the group actions commute and is transitive on , all -orbits inside have the same size : the bijection identifies the -orbits of and . Thus divides , while the orbit-stabilizer theorem also gives . The orders are coprime, so . Every point in is therefore -fixed, and lies in the image of . We have proved commutation of fixed points and orbit quotients for coprime groups:The bijection is the canonical comparison and is natural in the set with commuting group actions, so it proves the requested commutation of limits and colimits in the Category of sets.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 119 5 Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The statement that limits of shape commute with colimits of shape means that for every , the canonical commutation of limits and colimits mapis an isomorphism whenever the iterated limits and colimits exist.
A filtered category is a nonempty category in which every finite diagram has a cocone. Equivalently, any two objects map to a common object and any parallel pair becomes equal after postcomposition. A weakly filtered category requires cocones only for finite connected diagrams; equivalently, each connected component is filtered.
Write a weakly filtered category as the disjoint union of its filtered connected components. Its colimit is the coproduct of the filtered colimits over the . In sets, a connected finite limit commutes with coproducts: connectedness forces all coordinates of a compatible tuple to lie in the same coproduct summand. By the assumed theorem, the filtered colimit over each commutes with every finite limit. Applying these two facts successively proves that weakly filtered colimits commute with connected finite limits in .
The forgetful functor from abelian group to sets creates finite limits and filtered colimits and reflects isomorphisms. The comparison map for a filtered colimit and a finite limit therefore becomes the corresponding isomorphism of sets, so filtered colimits commute with finite limits in .
The dual claim fails because inverse limit need not preserve epimorphisms. Take the inverse systemswith identity bonding maps on , reduction maps on , and levelwise epimorphisms . Thenand the induced map is not surjective. Since an epimorphism in abelian groups is a finite-colimit cokernel, cofiltered limits do not commute with finite colimits in .