Knaster–Tarski fixed-point theorem 2026-10-03
Every order-preserving function from a complete lattice to itself has a least and a greatest fixed point. More strongly, its set of fixed points is itself a complete lattice.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 119 4 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Use , as required by the formula at zero, and composition of functions as multiplication in . The displayed preserves identities, and for ,both sides send zero to zero. Thus is a functor on the one-object category.
For the shift monad on order-preserving maps of natural numbers, setThese are order-preserving functions. The equations and hold pointwise, giving the required natural transformations. For the second equation, both sides are zero at , and are for . The two unit laws are . Associativity is checked byConsequently these maps define a monad. It is not an idempotent monad, since , so cannot be invertible.
An algebra for a monad is a map with and . The first equation forces ; monotonicity then forces . Thus , which satisfies the second equation by the monad associativity law. The Eilenberg-Moore category therefore has exactly one object. Its endomorphisms satisfy , and this equation holds precisely when : evaluate at zero for necessity, and at both sides equal .
The Kleisli comparison functor takes its only object to this only algebra and sends toIt is a bijection from the Kleisli arrows to the algebra endomorphisms, with inverse . It preserves identities and composition by the comparison construction; directly, and . Bijectivity on objects and arrows makes it an isomorphism of categories:
Let be the monoid of order-preserving functions , with , regarded as a one-object category. The endofunctor fixes that object and sends to , . The displayed maps give its monad unit and multiplication. The multiplication is not injective, so this is not an idempotent monad. Its only algebra for a monad is , because forces and monotonicity forces . Algebra endomorphisms are exactly the functions fixing zero. The Kleisli comparison functor sends to the function which is zero at zero and equals at ; its inverse sends to . Thus the comparison is an isomorphism of categories even though the monad is not idempotent.