Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2013 / iii / Paper 18 / 4 / a

An adjunction $F⊣G$ is a family of bijectionsnatural in both variables. Its adjunction unit and adjunction counit are ${\eta }_A={\Phi }_{A,FA}(1_{FA})$ and ${\epsilon }_B={\Phi }_{GB,B}^{-1}(1_{GB})$. Naturality of the correspondence givesFor $f:A\to A^{\prime }$, naturality in both variables evaluates $\Phi (Ff)$ in two ways, giving $GFf{\eta }_A={\eta }_{A^{\prime }}f$. Thus $\eta$ is a natural transformation; the dual calculation gives naturality of $\epsilon$.

Applying the inverse correspondence to ${\eta }_A$ and the correspondence to ${\epsilon }_B$ yields the triangle identities for an adjunction:They express that transposing an identity morphism and transposing back returns that identity.