Frame-point adjunction 2026-10-14
There is a natural bijection between continuous maps and frame homomorphisms . It sends to ; the inverse sends to the point . Its adjunction unit sends a point of to its open-neighbourhood membership map. The counit is represented by . Every open of is such a , and every point of a frame is uniquely evaluation at a point of . Consequently is a homeomorphism, and this is an idempotent adjunction.
For a compact regular locale , put and . This locale is extremally disconnected. Its natural surjection to has inverse image
The Joyal extension lemma gives the frame homomorphism; its injectivity follows by recovering as the join of the regular opens in this ideal.
Locale 2026-10-14
A locale is an object of the opposite of the category of frames. A map is specified by a frame homomorphism . This makes open-set algebra primary and allows spaces without enough ordinary points. A point of a frame is the inverse-image map of a point of a locale.
Open-set frame 2026-10-14
The open subsets of a topological space form a frame. Arbitrary joins are unions, finite meets are intersections, and an arbitrary meet is the interior of an intersection. A continuous map induces a frame homomorphism in the opposite direction by inverse image.
Work in the frame , writing for Heyting implication. A nucleus on a frame is an inflationary, idempotent map preserving finite meets. The open nucleus and closed nucleus are
Their meet in the frame of nuclei on a frame is pointwise. The distributivity of a Heyting algebra and the defining adjunction for Heyting implication give
If a nucleus on a frame bounds both, then and . Consequently , so is the top nucleus. Thus and are complements in .
For any nucleus on a frame , put . At an arbitrary ,
since . Moreover . Therefore
Indeed the join is at most , and its value at each is at least . This proves generation by the open nuclei and closed nuclei, without assuming that joins of nuclei on a frame are computed pointwise.
For the given frame homomorphism , restrict the displayed join to and denote the resulting nucleus on a frame by . The same inequalities show and . If has the same values on , its restricted formula is identical, so . Hence is the least representative of the equivalence class. We will also use the consequence
The least representatives form a subframe. For a family , let in . Restricted monotonicity gives for every , hence . For two least representatives, distribution in expresses their meet as the join, over , of
Here and . Since
each summand is below . The opposite inequality always holds, proving closure under binary meets. The top is and is a least representative. Also , because the summand at is ; and , because the summand at is . It follows from the restricted normal form that is exactly the subframe generated by and .
The map preserves finite meets by the formula above. A nucleus on a frame bounds every exactly when for every , equivalently . The least such nucleus is , so preserves arbitrary joins too, including . Evaluation at recovers , so this frame homomorphism is injective.
For the pushout, we prove the universal property explicitly. Let be a frame homomorphism for which every has a complement in . Define, for ,
To prove preservation of arbitrary joins, let be the right adjoint of and set for . This is a nucleus on a frame: inflationarity follows from the adjunction, finite-meet preservation follows from distribution and meet preservation by , and gives ; inflationarity gives the reverse inequality. Complementation and the adjunction now give
The last equivalence uses leastness of . Thus is a left adjoint, so preserves arbitrary joins. For binary meets, expand . A term indexed by is
This proves ; monotonicity proves the reverse inequality. The term at proves . Directly,
For the second identity the term at gives , while every term is disjoint from , because .
Apply this construction first with , , target , and complements . It gives a frame homomorphism satisfying and . Given any compatible pair , , take ; compatibility supplies the required complements. The constructed satisfies and , since the latter equality holds on the open and closed generators of . Uniqueness follows because and generate . Hence the square with edges is a pushout in .
A preframe has finite meets and joins of nonempty directed sets, with finite meets distributing over these joins. A preframe homomorphism preserves both operations. Its preframe tensor product has generators and relations making a homomorphism separately in each variable. Equivalently,
In particular . The tensor unit is the free preframe on one generator: classically it is , and constructively it is the frame of truth values, with generator .
Regard a frame as a commutative monoid object in preframes, with multiplication and unit . Binary join preserves finite meets and directed joins separately. Conversely take a commutative monoid object in preframes and put
This set contains and , since preservation of the empty meet gives . If , then , and
Thus finite meets are inherited. If is nonempty and directed, separate preservation of directed joins gives
because a common upper bound gives . Directed joins are inherited too. Associativity and commutativity show that is idempotent; it is the least idempotent upper bound of . Therefore is the bottom and is binary join on . Arbitrary joins are directed joins of finite products, including the empty product . Finally
so binary distributivity, together with directed distributivity, proves that is a frame.
A homomorphism from a frame join monoid to sends every element to an idempotent above and therefore factors uniquely through . The factor preserves finite joins and directed joins, hence arbitrary joins. Conversely the inclusion preserves the preframe and monoid operations. Also a preframe monoid homomorphism between frames is automatically a frame homomorphism. This proves the full embedding and its right adjoint: is a coreflective subcategory of , with coreflector .
The coproduct of commutative monoid objects in a symmetric monoidal category is their tensor: the maps are , , and a pair induces . For two frames , the induced multiplication on pure generators is
Every pure generator is idempotent and above . Those properties are preserved by finite meets and directed joins, as just proved, so hold throughout the generated preframe. It is therefore already a frame, rather than requiring a further coreflection. Consequently
Rectangles in the localic product are instead .
For a filtered colimit in a category of frames, form the colimit in preframes, with stage maps . It can be presented by stage elements, all their finite-meet and directed-join relations, and the transition relations. Since tensoring is a left adjoint, it preserves colimits. Filteredness makes the diagonal diagram cofinal in the product index diagram, so the stage multiplications induce . The units agree. Each stage element is idempotent above the common unit; generation again implies . The resulting frame is the filtered colimit in a category in ; its binary join is induced by computing two representatives at a common later stage. Thus binary coproducts and filtered colimits of frames are computed in preframes, with the indicated induced join operation.
We now prove compactness. For a compact locale, its frame has a top test , , preserving finite meets and directed joins. For compact , tensor the tests and use the unit isomorphism to obtain a preframe map with
It reflects top on every pure generator. The property is closed under finite meets and directed joins: for a directed join, preservation of the join says that its truth value is the existential disjunction of the individual truth values, so some term has value . Since pure generators generate the preframe, reflects top everywhere. Applying to a directed cover of therefore shows that a term of that cover is . This proves compactness of the binary coproduct frame, hence of the binary product locale.
For a filtered diagram of compact frames, define on stage
These truth-valued maps preserve finite meets: witnesses can be taken to a common later stage, using filteredness. They preserve directed joins: compactness at the witnessing later stage selects a member of the directed family. They are compatible with transitions, again by filteredness, so induce a preframe map . On stage generators, implies . The same generation argument proves that reflects top throughout . Thus the filtered colimit frame is compact.
Finally the arbitrary coproduct of the frames is the filtered colimit of their finite coproducts, indexed by finite subsets of the index set; the empty finite coproduct is , itself compact. Finite coproducts are compact by the binary argument, and their filtered colimit is compact by the preceding paragraph. Opposing the categories gives
This proves the localic Tychonoff theorem through preframes, without choosing points or invoking the axiom of choice.
Use the order on locale maps in which means for every open . A Hausdorff locale has a closed diagonal in its localic square. A totally unordered locale, or locale, has discretely ordered hom-sets: every comparable pair of maps with any common domain is equal.
In the localic square of , let
This is the largest open disjoint from the diagonal: inverse image along the diagonal sends the rectangle to . Hence is the complement of its closure. If , then
for every summand of . Thus factors through the closure of the diagonal. For a Hausdorff locale that closure is the diagonal itself, so . This proof of Hausdorff implies does not require classical logic.
Here is an explicit classical counterexample to the converse implication from spatial Hausdorffness. Give the topology generated by the usual opens and by . Every open has the form , where are usual open sets and we may arrange . The topology is finer than the usual one, so the space is Hausdorff. Put , the complete Boolean algebra of ordinary regular open elements, and write . Restriction from this space to its rational and irrational subspaces, followed by Booleanization, gives frame homomorphisms
To justify these formulas, each subspace has its ordinary subspace topology and is dense in the ordinary real line. Regular-open algebras of a space and a dense subspace are isomorphic: restrict a regular open and take its interior-closure, with inverse obtained by taking interior-closure in the ambient space. Restriction is a frame homomorphism, and double negation is a frame homomorphism into its fixed-element frame. These observations also show independence of the chosen representation of . Since , we have , but and . Thus this Hausdorff space fails as a locale.
For the remaining arguments about connected locales, use the classical-logic option: positive opens of a locale are exactly the nonzero opens. There is a necessary positivity qualification. The empty locale has no positive opens, so the printed condition on those opens holds vacuously, although no point exists. The point assertions therefore require to be positive. This qualification is automatic if “totally connected” includes nonemptiness; otherwise it must be added explicitly.
Let be positive and satisfy the condition on its positive opens of a locale. Put . It contains , excludes , and is upward closed. If had , their union would be a positive open of a locale with a decomposition into two disjoint nonzero opens, contradicting its being a connected locale. Thus . If , not all can be zero; classical logic supplies a nonzero summand. Hence is a completely prime filter, and its characteristic frame homomorphism defines a point .
The point is dense. Indeed implies by the definition of . In nucleus language the image of has nucleus ; its value at is , so the image is a dense sublocale.
Conversely suppose an open locale has a dense point . Density means only if , and classically this implies for every positive open of a locale. If a positive open split as with and both summands nonzero, then , contradicting preservation of their meet. Thus every positive open of a locale is a connected locale, proving the converse under the declared logical convention.
Let be the terminal map. For a positive totally connected locale , the point above satisfies
because the right side is when and both sides are otherwise. Hence . If and is a totally unordered locale, composition gives , so . Therefore
which is the required constant factorization. For the empty source the factorization need not exist: the unique map does not factor through . Thus the positivity qualification matters for this assertion too.
For a Boolean algebra , write for its principal lattice ideal. The ideal frame of a Boolean algebra has intersections as meets and ideals generated by unions as joins. The pseudocomplement of an ideal is
In particular , so every principal ideal is complemented and regular.
If is complete, put . Then and . Thus all regular ideals are principal and complemented, so the corresponding locale is extremally disconnected.
Conversely, if the ideal frame of a Boolean algebra is extremally disconnected, each is complemented. Any complemented ideal is principal: if and , the fact that their generated join contains supplies with . Then , so ; every is disjoint from and therefore . Thus . Write . Since , bounds . If is another upper bound, implies , so . An arbitrary subset has the same upper bounds as the lattice ideal it generates, so every subset of has a supremum. Hence
Now put and . This is a complete Boolean algebra, with arbitrary Boolean joins , so the preceding result makes extremally disconnected. We construct its map to using the permitted Joyal extension lemma.
The map , , is a frame homomorphism, with right adjoint . Thus is a nucleus on a frame whose fixed frame is . It preserves finite joins: both and equal , and . Consequently the locale with frame is a flat sublocale of . It is also the Booleanization of a locale , so it has its inclusion map to .
The Joyal extension lemma says that a map from a flat sublocale to a compact locale that is a regular locale extends uniquely to the ambient locale. Apply it to this inclusion. Its frame formula gives
where is the well-inside relation . This also proves directly that the map is surjective. Indeed implies : meet with . Every member of the ideal is therefore at most in , since a finite Boolean join of its generators is below ; the last inequality follows because . Regularity gives
Thus can be recovered from , so is injective. A locale map with injective inverse-image frame homomorphism is a surjection. We have obtained an extremally disconnected and a surjection .
A propositional geometric theory has primitive propositions and sequents between formulas built with finite conjunction and arbitrary set-indexed disjunction. Start with the free frame on the primitives, identify conjunction with meet and disjunction with join, and impose each sequent as an inequality. The resulting quotient frame is . In the sheaf topos , interpret each primitive as the subterminal sheaf corresponding to its generating open. Operations on these subterminal sheaves are precisely the frame operations, so every imposed sequent is valid. This constructs the canonical model.
For a commutative ring , denote the generator attached to by . The presentation implies
The product equality uses the multiplication implication in one direction and both factor implications in the other; the latter follow by commuting . A ring homomorphism sends these relations to the corresponding ones in . It therefore gives a frame homomorphism and hence a map of locales.
If , then
so the two opens cover. Conversely let and pull back a putative cover along . Both generators become , so in . The allowed degeneracy criterion gives in , equivalently . Thus
This necessity argument never selects a prime ideal.
Finite intersections of the generating opens are again generators, so they form a basis. Assign to . The localization of a ring carries its ordinary addition and multiplication of fractions; equality of and means that some power of annihilates the cross-multiplied difference. On , restriction is further localization.
We also justify restriction for any inclusion of basic opens. Adding the condition to the presentation of gives the open and the presentation of : the generator for corresponds to . This is well-defined since equality of fractions, after multiplication by a power of the now-invertible , makes the two membership propositions equivalent. More explicitly, implies . If , this gives . If is killed by a power of , then (since ), and the additive inequalities for and give . A zero element in the localized ring has false membership, multiplication gives intersections, and the additive relation follows by clearing denominators. The reverse assignment on proves that these maps are inverse. Thus . If , then in this localized theory . Apply the quotient argument above, with the second generator , to conclude in . Therefore is invertible there, and the universal property of localization gives the restriction . These restrictions compose uniquely.
It remains to glue, and the allowed basis criterion reduces this to a whole-locale cover . Let and have equal restrictions to . Choose a common initial exponent , writing , . Equality on the overlap supplies with
Set , and . Then
with the last equality in itself. This clearing step is necessary when the commutative ring has zero divisors.
Since , also . Choose . For , expand ; each term contains either or , producing with . For choose . Define
In ,
and similarly in ,
Thus glues the matching pair. If is another gluing, some and annihilate . The same binomial argument gives , so . This proves uniqueness without cancellation or a domain assumption.
The exactness of the unit-ideal localization Čech complex proves the sheaf axiom for the required basic covers, and hence the assignment with its restrictions defines a sheaf of rings with . On the empty basic open, localization is the zero ring, whose underlying set has one section, as required. The construction and proof remain valid for the zero ring.
For an adjunction , write its adjunction unit as and its adjunction counit as . It is an idempotent adjunction when the induced monad has invertible multiplication . The dual condition is invertibility of the induced comonad comultiplication .
To prove equivalence of these conditions, suppose is invertible. The two unit identities imply , where . For any algebra for a monad , naturality gives
while . Thus is invertible. For each , the arrow is a monad algebra action, so is invertible. Applying proves invertible. Apply this implication to the opposite adjunction, interchanging the roles of the monad and comonad, to obtain the converse. Therefore idempotence is self-dual.
The open-set frame is ordered by inclusion. Its arbitrary joins are unions; arbitrary meets are interiors of intersections. Finite intersections are already open, so finite meets are ordinary intersections, including the empty meet . Distributivity of intersection over arbitrary unions proves the frame law. If is a continuous map, inverse image
preserves arbitrary unions and finite intersections, including and the entire space. It is therefore a frame homomorphism. Since and , this defines .
Let and let be the set of points of a frame , namely frame homomorphisms . For , put . Preservation of joins and finite meets gives
In the last equality, a join in is precisely when at least one summand is , also covering the empty family. Thus the sets are all the opens of a topology, rather than merely a proposed basis.
For a frame homomorphism , define by . Since , it is continuous. Composition and identities follow from composition of functions, giving .
The frame-point adjunction is the natural bijection
A continuous map determines ; the displayed identities for show that is a frame homomorphism. Conversely a frame homomorphism determines exactly when . Membership in unions and finite intersections proves that is a frame homomorphism to , and proves continuity. These constructions are inverse. Precomposing in becomes inverse image of open sets; precomposing a frame homomorphism becomes composition of frame points. Hence the bijection is natural in both arguments and proves .
The adjunction unit is
The adjunction counit at , regarded as an arrow of , is represented by the frame homomorphism , . It is surjective because every open of is of this form. We can compute explicitly: it sends to . For every open of ,
Thus . Conversely, evaluation at sends to , so . Both maps are continuous by their definitions. Therefore is a homeomorphism. The multiplication of the induced monad at is , which is invertible by this calculation. Consequently the frame-point adjunction is idempotent. This does not assert that every is a homeomorphism: it says that applying the point-space construction a second time makes no further change.