Yes, with the Horn/Cartesian-fragment convention. A Horn theory uses positive finite-conjunction sequents and has a Cartesian syntactic category with finite limits. Provably uniquely witnessed existential formulas can also be admitted without changing the finite-limit nature of its semantics. Its internal models are precisely finite-limit-preserving functors from that category.
For a category with finite limits, flat functors into a Grothendieck topos are exactly finite-limit-preserving functors. In sets, the reason is concrete: the category of elements of a covariant left-exact functor is cofiltered. Its terminal object supplies nonemptiness, products supply cones over pairs of elements, and equalizers supply equalizing cones over parallel arrows. Conversely a cofiltered category of elements expresses the functor as a filtered colimit of covariant representables; filtered colimits of sets commute with finite limits. The internal version uses the same cone conditions locally.
The presheaf form of the Diaconescu equivalence for geometric morphisms therefore identifies geometric morphisms into
with internal Horn models, naturally in the domain topos. This is the presheaf classifier of a Horn theory.
Equivalently, using a small skeleton of the category of finitely presented set-based Horn models, the classifier is , with covariant functors. The duality sends a formula to the model generated by its tuple subject to its finite constraints. The presheaf claim does not extend merely because a general geometric or regular theory has no written disjunctions: arbitrary existential witnesses are not uniquely witnessed Horn data.
Let be a finite diagram in a category. Form the finite products in a category
Define by and . Take their equalizer . The maps satisfy , so they constitute a categorical cone.
Any other categorical cone gives a unique by the product in a category property. Its cone equations say , so the equalizer gives a unique with . The projections then give , and uniqueness follows from both universal properties. Thus this equalizer of two product maps is the finite limit of the diagram in a category.
The empty indexing category is included: its empty product in a category is a terminal object, which is the empty categorical limit. Hence no nonemptiness restriction has entered the construction.
With a terminal object , the pullback in a category of is the binary product in a category . Repetition gives all nonempty finite products in a category, and supplies the empty one.
For , form the diagonal and pull it back along . Write the resulting maps as and . The equation says . A map with pairs with to give a unique map into this pullback in a category. Thus is the equalizer of .
We now have the finite products in a category and equalizers needed in part (a). A terminal object and pullbacks in a category therefore suffice for all finite limits.
An object of the slice category is a morphism ; a map from to is with . The identity morphism is a terminal object of this slice category, even when itself has no terminal object.
For a cospan in the slice category, form its underlying pullback in a category in , with maps and . If are the structure maps to , then . This common map equips with its slice structure. An underlying mediating map into is automatically over , because its composite with is the prescribed structure map. Hence the same square is a pullback in a category in .
A weakly initial set is a set of objects such that every object receives at least one map from some . An initial object is itself a singleton weakly initial set. We prove the converse without replacing uniqueness by weak initiality.
Let be a complete category that is locally small. Form . For every object , choose and compose with the projection , so is weakly initial. Completeness supplies a terminal object, so the given weakly initial set cannot be empty.
The endomorphisms of form a set. Take a simultaneous equalizer of all of them with ; equivalently, equalize the two maps from into with components and . Thus for every endomorphism . The object is weakly initial, since exists for every . Weak initiality of gives a map . Applying the equalizing identity to yields , so monicity of gives .
For any endomorphism , the map is an endomorphism of . Therefore . Since , this becomes , giving . Now let and form their equalizer . Weak initiality of gives . The composite is an endomorphism of , hence the identity. Consequently .
There is at least one map from to every object, and the argument proves that there is at most one. The object is an initial object. This establishes the initial-object lemma for complete categories with a weakly initial set using only small products in a category and equalizers.
If is a representable functor, it preserves small categorical limits. Part (b) makes have an initial object, which gives a weakly initial set.
Conversely, assume limit preservation and a weakly initial set in . The needed comma-limit fact is explicit: for a small diagram in a category , form in . The elements form a compatible family, hence determine a unique under . The projections from are a categorical limit in the comma category. This includes the empty diagram, since carries the terminal object to a singleton. Each comma hom-set is a subset of a hom-set in , so the comma category is also locally small.
Part (c) now gives an initial object of , and part (b) supplies a representation of a functor. Therefore
The size requirement is a genuine solution-set condition; limit preservation alone does not produce it in an arbitrary complete category.
A semi-additive category has commutative-monoid enrichment: each hom-set is a commutative monoid, and composition in a category preserves addition and zero in each variable. In the finite-biproduct convention, which we use here, it also has finite products in a category and coproducts in a category. A preadditive category has abelian groups as its hom-sets, with composition additive in each variable; this definition alone does not require finite products in a category or a zero object.
Let with projections . Define by for and otherwise. Bilinearity gives
so product uniqueness gives . For a family , set . Then . If has the same restrictions, . Thus the product in a category is also the coproduct in a category, with its canonical injections. Conversely, the analogous construction from a finite coproduct in a category gives projections and the same identities, proving that it is a product in a category.
For the empty family, a terminal object has a singleton endomorphism monoid, so . Every map equals its composite with , hence equals the zero map; this map exists by enrichment. Therefore is also an initial object, a zero object. The dual argument applies to an initial object. Consequently finite products in a category and coproducts in a category coincide canonically as biproducts, including the nullary case.
For a diagram , a limit-preserving functor carries every limiting cone over a diagram to a limiting categorical cone. A limit-reflecting functor has the converse property: a categorical cone is limiting whenever its image is limiting. A limit-creating functor uniquely lifts every specified limiting categorical cone over the image diagram to a categorical cone over , and the lift is limiting. These definitions concern diagrams of the stipulated shape; creation includes the lifting requirement, not merely reflection.
Let be a categorical limit of . The map
is a bijection: the right side consists exactly of compatible families of arrows from , and the categorical limit's universal property gives their unique factorization through . The bijection is induced by the categorical limit projections, so it proves that covariant representables preserve limits, including the empty diagram and its terminal object.
Let be the full subcategory of quotients of decidable objects. It is closed under quotients, by composition of epimorphisms, and under small coproducts, by part (ii). It is also closed under subobjects: pull back a decidable cover along . The resulting cover of has domain a subobject of , hence a decidable object.
The terminal object lies in . If and are decidable covers, their product is an epimorphism . Part (ii) makes its domain decidable. Thus products, and then equalizers as subobjects of products, remain in . The inclusion preserves finite limits.
We construct a coreflective subcategory rather than claim that every object has a decidable cover. For , let be the union of all subobjects of which lie in . The Grothendieck topos is well-powered, so these subobjects form a set. Choose a decidable cover of each and take their coproduct. Its map to has image , so is itself a quotient of a decidable object. Any map from an object of to has image in , and therefore factors uniquely through . This gives
The induced idempotent comonad on preserves finite limits: is a right adjoint and preserves those limits. Its counit is the inclusion , and .
The coalgebras of this comonad are exactly the objects of . A coalgebra structure is a section of the monic counit, forcing the counit to be an isomorphism; conversely an object already in has the unique such structure. Thus . Part (i) now gives
This argument proves the required elementary-topos conclusion without presuming a small family of decidable generators for .
A decidable object in a topos has a decomposition , with representing inequality. In the internal logic of a topos, equality on is decidable. These categorical complements behave well under pullback.
For a subobject , pull back the displayed decomposition along . The diagonal pulls back to , while pulls back to its complement. Hence every subobject of a decidable object is decidable; the subobject itself need not be complemented in .
For two decidable objects, the diagonals of and give four disjoint summands of , according as each coordinate pair is equal or unequal. The both-equal summand is , and the other three give its complement. The terminal object is decidable, so induction gives closure under finite products, including the empty product.
For a family of decidable objects with an existing coproduct , products distribute over this coproduct, giving
The coproduct injections in a topos are disjoint. The diagonal consists of in each summand, and has complement
Consequently every existing coproduct of decidable objects is decidable, including the initial object. In a Grothendieck topos all small coproducts exist. No assertion that arbitrary products preserve decidability is used.
A first-order signature specifies sorts, function symbols with specified input and output sorts, and relation symbols with specified input sorts. A coherent formula is built from atomic relations and equalities using , , finite logical conjunctions, finite logical disjunctions, and existential quantification. A coherent theory is a set of sequents between coherent formulas in a common finite context; its axioms are interpreted as universally closed implications. Neither general negation nor universal quantification is allowed inside coherent formulas.
One complete presentation of coherent logic consists of the following axiom and rule schemes, together with the theory's sequents. All displayed formulas have compatible sorts and contexts, and bound variables can be renamed.
Identity and cut give and
Substitution replaces the free variables of any derivable sequent by well-typed terms, avoiding capture. Contexts can be enlarged by unused variables, and permuted or renamed.
The finite-meet rules are , , , and
The finite-join rules are , , , and
Include distributivity .
Existential introduction is . Existential elimination is
where is absent from . Equivalently, the quantifier is left adjoint to weakening along the context projection. Include the Frobenius rule in coherent logic
It can also be derived from the usual coherent natural-deduction rules.
Equality has and the substitution scheme
including atomic formulas and terms of the signature. Symmetry, transitivity and congruence for all functions and relations follow. These schemes impose no unintended inhabitedness axiom on a sort.
The coherent syntactic category has objects formulas in context , up to renaming. An arrow from to is an equivalence class, modulo provable equivalence, of formulas satisfying
and
These are provably total functional relations. The identity is the equality graph restricted by . If and are consecutive arrows, their composite is represented by . Equality, cut and existential rules give the category laws.
A coherent category has finite limits, pullback-stable regular-epi/mono image factorizations, and finite unions of subobjects stable under pullback. We verify these structures syntactically. The terminal object is the empty-context truth formula. Products conjoin formulas in disjoint contexts; equalizers add equality of the two output tuples. For a functional relation , its image in the target is represented by . Its factor onto that image is regular epic: two arrows out of the image agreeing on the source agree by existential elimination, and the same argument with the kernel pair gives the coequalizer property. Frobenius makes these image factorizations stable under pullback.
Every subobject of is represented by a formula with . Indeed, take the existential image of a monic functional relation; uniqueness makes its map to that image an isomorphism. Subobject inclusion is exactly provable implication. Finite unions are consequently disjunctions, with bottom as the empty subobject; distributivity and substitution make them pullback-stable. Hence is coherent.
The conservative syntactic model interprets a sort by , a function by its term graph, and a relation by its atomic-formula subobject. Induction on coherent formulas shows that is interpreted by the subobject of its context object. It satisfies every theory axiom by construction. Conversely, a sequent holds in this model exactly when the corresponding subobject inclusion holds, which is exactly derivability in . Therefore
This is conservativity for coherent sequents, not a claim about non-coherent formulas.
For the categorical presheaf , its category of elements has objects with . A morphism is a morphism satisfying . Composition in a category is inherited from : if also , then . The identity morphisms are inherited as well. The forgetful functor sends to and to .
A universal element is a pair for which each is uniquely of the form for . Thus is a terminal object of the category of elements, with the variance appropriate to a categorical presheaf.
Given a universal element, define
The defining uniqueness makes each map a bijection; gives naturality for . Hence is a natural isomorphism and is a representable presheaf. Conversely, from a natural isomorphism , take . The Yoneda lemma gives ; its bijectivity makes a universal element. Therefore the two descriptions coincide:
Fix the chosen categorical limit object and its categorical cone . For , the family
is a categorical cone, by naturality of . The universal property of supplies a unique morphism
The identity morphism of satisfies the equations for , so . For composable , the equations for agree with those for ; uniqueness gives . Hence the chosen limits define a functor . This argument also handles an empty indexing category, when each chosen categorical limit is a terminal object.
Equivalently, represents the categorical cone functor , and functoriality of chosen representations supplies the same .
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.
Apply condition with the singleton . It says that the category of elements has all finite limits, including a terminal object. The opposite category therefore has all finite colimits. In particular it is nonempty; two objects map to their binary coproduct in a category; and any parallel arrows are equalized by their coequalizer. These are precisely the conditions for a filtered category. Equivalently, every finite diagram has a cocone, obtained by reversing a categorical limit in . Thus