Geometric embedding ($i_{\ast }\text{ full and faithful}$)

A geometric embedding is a geometric morphism whose direct-image functor is full and faithful. Its inverse image presents a left-exact reflective subcategory of the target topos. It is the second part of the surjection-embedding factorization of a geometric morphism.

A subtopos is a Grothendieck topos embedded by a geometric embedding, considered up to equivalence over the ambient topos. On a site $(\mathcal{C},J)$, subtoposes correspond to Grothendieck topologies $J^{\prime }\supseteq J$. On a classifying topos this is the duality between geometric quotients and subtoposes.