Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 20 7 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a presheaf of sets on a topological space , define and . Then the adjoints to constant presheaves on open sets areTo prove the first adjunction, a natural transformation must satisfy by naturality at the inclusion . Hence it is uniquely determined by a function . Every such function defines a natural transformation by this formula, because restriction maps compose. This gives .
For the second adjunction, a natural transformation satisfies , so it is uniquely determined by a function . Every such function defines the remaining components by restriction, giving . Evaluation acts on presheaf morphisms componentwise, so these object assignments are indeed functors. The use of is essential: a constant presheaf of sets has value there, whereas a sheaf has a singleton value there. No sheaf condition is imposed in this question.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 119 5 Solution 2026-09-28
The assertion that filtered colimits commute with finite limits in sets means that for every filtered category , every finite category , and every functor , the canonical comparisonis a bijection. Surjectivity follows because an element on the right uses only finitely many representatives and compatibility equations, so filteredness moves all of them to one common stage. For injectivity, equality likewise consists of finitely many equalities, which become true at one later common stage.
The dual assertion fails in . Equivalently, cofiltered limits need not commute with finite colimits in sets. Index inverse systems by , with arrows , and putusing the inclusions and the unique maps . Since is nonempty, the pushout is a singleton at every stage, so its inverse limit is a singleton. Butand the pushout of the inverse limits is , which has two elements. Thus a cofiltered limit fails to preserve this finite pushout.
Let be a presheaf of sets on a topological space . The neighborhoods of , ordered by reverse inclusion, form a filtered category, andThe first result therefore says that the stalk functor for presheaves of sets preserves finite limits.
For a set , define a presheaf bywith identity restrictions between neighborhoods of and the unique maps to otherwise. A natural transformation is exactly a compatible family of maps over neighborhoods of , hence exactly a map . Thusso is right adjoint to the stalk functor.
Now restrict to sheaves. Suppose two morphisms induce the same map on every stalk. For and every , equality of the two germs gives a neighborhood on which and agree. The cover , so the uniqueness axiom for gives . Therefore the joint stalk functor on sheaves of setsis faithful.
The presheaf above is already a sheaf: an open containing has a cover member containing , and compatibility forces one common element of . Hence a right adjoint to sends a family to the product , whose existence follows from the assumed closure of under limits.
Each stalk preserves finite limits, so preserves equalizers. If is an isomorphism, its monicity and epicity are reflected by the faithful functor ; since is assumed balanced, is an isomorphism. Thus reflects isomorphisms. The Beck comonadicity theorem now applies: has a right adjoint, reflects isomorphisms, and preserves the required equalizers. Consequently is comonadic.
Presheaf (category theory) 2026-10-14
A presheaf on a category is a functor . A morphism induces the restriction map , reversing direction. The indexing category need not be small. For the category of open subsets of a topological space, this specializes to a presheaf of sets on a topological space.