Let be a colimit cocone for . Here the preservation hypothesis must include the categorical limit of in ; this indexing category can be large. For a morphism of the category of elements, the defining equation says that the family of distinguished elements is compatible. Preservation gives a unique with
In particular each is now a morphism in the category of elements. Naturality of the colimit cocone gives
The universal property of the colimit forces , since it and agree after every cocone leg. If also satisfies , it is a morphism , and cocone compatibility now yields . Thus is a universal element. By the preceding representability criterion, the presheaf is represented by the colimit object:
The size qualification matters. If preservation means only small categorical limits, the implication as printed is false for general locally small categories. For an explicit counterexample, let be the ordered category of all ordinals with an extra greatest object . Put for every ordinal and , with the forced restriction maps. Every small colimit in is the supremum of its object values: it is an ordinal unless the diagram contains . Applying therefore gives the appropriate small categorical limit of singletons, or the empty set when a value is empty; an empty diagram gives . Hence preserves all small categorical limits.
Its category of elements consists of all ordinals, whose projection has the large colimit in . Nevertheless, no ordinal represents , because its representable vanishes on larger ordinals; does not represent it either, since is nonempty while is empty. The valid proof consequently uses preservation of the displayed possibly large limit, or a smallness hypothesis making that diagram small.
Suppose . As a functor on the opposite category, a representable presheaf preserves every existing categorical limit: a colimit in is defined by the bijection between morphisms from its vertex into and compatible families of morphisms from its diagram objects into . This remains valid for a possibly large diagram in a category whenever that colimit exists and the compatible-family collection is the corresponding set.
The category of elements has a terminal object , where is the image of under the representation. For each let be its unique morphism to . These form a cocone for the forgetful functor . Any competing cocone satisfies
The component at uniquely determines the mediating morphism. Thus the representing object is the colimit of the elements projection:
The right-adjoint criterion using comma-category colimits is as follows. Under the given colimit-preservation hypothesis, with preservation including the possibly large colimits below, has a right adjoint exactly when, for every , the projection
has a colimit in . The right adjoint is obtained from these comma-category colimits. Thus the objects to construct are
For necessity, if with adjunction counit , is a terminal object of the comma category . Its unique incoming morphisms give a colimit cocone for , exactly as for the elements projection in the preceding part.
For sufficiency, choose such a colimit with legs . The morphisms are a cocone on . Since preserves this colimit, there is a unique satisfying
Each is thus a morphism in the comma category. The original colimit cocone gives for every object, hence by the universal property. For any other morphism , cocone compatibility gives
So is a terminal object. Equivalently, represents the categorical presheaf , via . The functoriality of chosen representations makes these into , yielding a natural bijection
The preservation of these possibly large colimits is essential to the construction of . Under a small-only interpretation, the preceding ordinal counterexample also disproves the unqualified converse here. Take . It preserves all small colimits. For a nonempty set , the comma category has one object over each ordinal and none over , so its projection has colimit . For , the projection is the identity of , again with colimit . Thus all these projection colimits exist, but has no right adjoint: the categorical presheaf is not representable. This makes the large-preservation qualification substantive.
A small cogenerating family , with a set, distinguishes unequal parallel morphisms by postcomposition: for , some has . Being well-powered means that the subobjects of each object form a set up to the usual equivalence of monomorphisms. These hypotheses make the solution-set condition automatic.
The dual formulation uses a cocomplete category, being a well-copowered category and having a small generating family, and concludes that every small-colimit-preserving functor has a right adjoint.
It is enough to prove the solution-set condition and then apply the general adjoint functor theorem. Fix and a morphism . We will factor it through one object in a set depending only on .
First construct a minimal supported subobject. Among the subobjects for which for some , include and take their intersection . This is a small intersection, by well-poweredness. It exists by completeness as the categorical limit of the diagram consisting of these monomorphisms into . Its map to is a monomorphism: two maps with the same composite to have equal projections to every , since each is monic, and are then equal by the categorical limit property. One can equivalently construct these intersections by pullbacks in a category and small products in a category, using stability of monomorphisms under pullback in a category.
Choose the factorizations . They form a compatible categorical cone into the image diagram under , all with common composite to . Preservation of small categorical limits yields with . If is another subobject through which factors after applying , then is among the original supported subobjects. The intersection property gives with . Since is monic, ; since is monic, also . Thus every supported subobject of is invertible.
For each member of the small cogenerating family, consider
This map is injective. If , preservation of the equalizer of makes factor through the image of that equalizer. Minimality makes its inclusion an isomorphism, so .
Write ; it is a set by local smallness of . Let be the image of . For each , there is exactly one corresponding . These maps define the evaluation embedding into cogenerator products
It is a monomorphism: if and , cogeneration supplies some distinguishing ; that is one of the projections of , a contradiction. The product is small. It is important to use the subfamilies , since some missing coordinate in need not correspond to a morphism out of .
There are only a set of possible families . For each such family form , choose a set of representatives of its subobjects, and take all pairs . Local smallness of and well-poweredness make their union a set. In the case just constructed, identifies with one chosen representative . Transporting to and composing the inverse identification with gives a factorization of the original through that pair. Therefore these pairs form a weakly initial set in .
The general adjoint functor theorem now supplies a left adjoint to . Conversely, a right adjoint preserves small categorical limits, either by the adjunction hom-set bijections and the hom-set detection of categorical limits, or directly from their universal properties. Hence the stated special theorem is proved in both directions.
Write , , with adjunction unit and adjunction counit . The adjunction gives
For , precomposition with followed by this bijection gives
by the triangle identities for an adjunction. Thus is fully faithful exactly when precomposition with is bijective for every .
A morphism with this property is an isomorphism. Surjectivity for target supplies with . Since , injectivity for target gives . Conversely, precomposition with an isomorphism is always bijective. Applied to every , this proves the fully faithful right-adjoint criterion:
When the adjunction counit is invertible, the inverse to is explicitly .
Write and , with adjunction counit . The induced monad has and . Define the Eilenberg-Moore comparison functor by
The action satisfies by a triangular equation. Naturality of at gives
Applying yields , the other algebra identity. For , naturality gives
so is a monad algebra morphism. Identities and compositions are respected because is a functor. Finally,
and the same equalities hold on morphisms. Thus both comparison identities hold, strictly when is the specified induced monad:
Suppose every algebra action is an isomorphism. Its inverse is , by the unit law for a monad algebra. For any underlying morphism between two algebras for a monad, naturality of gives
Therefore every underlying morphism is automatically a monad algebra morphism. The forgetful functor is always faithful, because a monad algebra morphism has no data beyond its underlying morphism, and it is now full as well. Hence invertible algebra actions imply
If is fully faithful, the criterion proved for a right adjoint says that the adjunction counit of is a natural isomorphism. Its component at is precisely the algebra action . In particular, its component at the free algebra for a monad has underlying morphism . Thus every is an isomorphism, and the natural transformation is invertible. This closes the cycle and proves all four conditions equivalent:
Let denote the generating object, the image of the unique object of the terminal category. The free braided monoidal category on one object can be described syntactically. Its objects are all fully parenthesized expressions built from , the monoidal unit object , and a binary monoidal tensor product. Thus and are distinct objects, though canonically isomorphic. Its morphisms are generated by the associators, unitors, braidings and their inverses, closed under composition and tensor product, subject to the pentagon, triangle, naturality and hexagon axioms. No symmetry relation is imposed on the braiding. The embedding of the terminal category selects .
The braid category has objects the nonnegative integers, with
where is the braid group on strands and are trivial. Composition is stacking braids, with the first morphism followed by the second. The monoidal tensor product is addition on objects and side-by-side juxtaposition of braids; its monoidal unit object is . The associators and unitors are identities, so it is a strict monoidal category.
Choose the positive crossing convention once and for all. Its braiding is the block braid moving the first strands over the next strands while retaining the order within each block. In particular . The usual braid group relations express the naturality and hexagon laws for these block braids. The generating functor selects .
The distinction is parenthesized tensor expressions versus strand counts: the first construction keeps the structural isomorphisms visible, while has strict tensor arithmetic. These descriptions give the two requested free constructions without needing to establish their universal properties.
Define the length of a formal tensor expression recursively by
The canonical strict monoidal functor sends to , sends every associator and unitor to an identity braid, and sends to the block braiding . The pentagon and triangle become identity equations; the braiding axioms become the corresponding block-braid equations. Thus the assignment respects the defining relations, and
on the nose. It is a braided monoidal functor with identity comparison maps.
To prove that is an equivalence of categories, choose a standard parenthesization of copies of , with . On , define the image of by canonically exposing the th and st factors, applying there, and restoring the chosen parentheses. The monoidal coherence theorem makes this independent of the structural rebracketing. Crossings on disjoint pairs commute by the tensor interchange law. The adjacent braid group relations follows from the hexagon laws and naturality of the braiding, as in the Yang–Baxter calculation below. Hence these assignments give group homomorphisms and a functor .
Equip with the canonical rebracketing maps . Their monoidal functor axioms follow from the monoidal coherence theorem; the block-braiding compatibility follows by iterating the two hexagon laws. Therefore is a strong monoidal functor compatible with the braiding.
We have , including its comparison maps. For every formal expression , there is a canonical structural isomorphism
obtained by rebracketing and inserting the units appearing in . These maps form a natural isomorphism . To check naturality, it suffices to check the generating morphisms: for associators and unitors it is exactly monoidal coherence; for it follows from the hexagon expansion into the elementary crossings defining . Composition and tensor product then preserve the equation. The same structural coherence shows that is monoidal.
Thus has a specified quasi-inverse and is the required equivalence:
Only ordinary monoidal coherence, together with the defining braiding axioms, has been used; a separate braided coherence theorem is unnecessary.