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.
Power-object monadicity 2026-10-07
The contravariant power-object functor of an elementary topos is monadic. Its double-power unit is monic, which helps prove that reflects isomorphisms. Finite equalizers and the fact that power objects turn coreflexive equalizers into coequalizers give the remaining hypotheses of the crude monadicity theorem.