Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 75 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Here Cartesian category means a category with all finite limits. Let be a monomorphism, and let be universal membership for a power object . Pull it back to and then regard the result as a subobject of . Its unique classifier is an endomorphism : on a parameterized subobject it intersects with . Intersecting twice has the same result as intersecting once, so uniqueness of classification gives .
Take the equalizer of and the identity, and restrict membership to . For any subobject , its composite with is a subobject of , hence is uniquely classified by . Since it is contained in , its intersection with that subobject changes nothing, so and factors uniquely through . Conversely every map gives the original kind of family by pulling back the restricted membership. These inverse operations givenaturally in . Thus is a power object of a subobject, even if no power objects other than were assumed.
Now consider the slice category , which has finite limits formed by ambient pullbacks and has terminal object . The constant family has slice power object : for ,and a classifier is equivalently the map over . Every family is a subobject of this constant family through its monic graph . Apply the first construction inside the slice. Consequently every slice of a Cartesian category with power objects again has power objects.
Power objects in a slice category 2026-10-14
If a Cartesian category has power objects, its slice categories do too. In , the constant family has power object , since its product with a family is . An arbitrary family is a subobject of the constant family through its graph , so the power object of a subobject construction applies in the slice.