Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 18 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For a diagram , a limit-preserving functor carries every limiting cone over a diagram to a limiting categorical cone. A limit-reflecting functor has the converse property: a categorical cone is limiting whenever its image is limiting. A limit-creating functor uniquely lifts every specified limiting categorical cone over the image diagram to a categorical cone over , and the lift is limiting. These definitions concern diagrams of the stipulated shape; creation includes the lifting requirement, not merely reflection.
Let be a categorical limit of . The mapis a bijection: the right side consists exactly of compatible families of arrows from , and the categorical limit's universal property gives their unique factorization through . The bijection is induced by the categorical limit projections, so it proves that covariant representables preserve limits, including the empty diagram and its terminal object.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 18 5 d Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
If is representable, it is a limit-preserving functor, and its universal element gives an initial object of , hence a weakly initial singleton.
Conversely, a limit-preserving makes a complete category. For a small diagram , take in . Its distinguished elements form a compatible family in . Categorical limit preservation gives a unique with . The underlying categorical limit factorization of a categorical cone preserves this element, proving the comma-category universal property. For the empty diagram, this uses . This is the construction of limits in a comma category of a limit-preserving functor.
The comma category is locally small since its arrows are subsets of the hom-sets in . By the previous part, its weakly initial set therefore yields an initial object. Part (b) then yields a representation of . Thus representability from a solution set follows with all small categorical limits, rather than finite categorical limits alone.