English

Generalized Lens Categories via functors $\mathcal{C}^{\rm op}\to\mathsf{Cat}$

Category Theory 2022-03-18 v4 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

Lenses have a rich history and have recently received a great deal of attention from applied category theorists. We generalize the notion of lens by defining a category LensF\mathsf{Lens}_F for any category C\mathcal{C} and functor F ⁣:CopCatF\colon \mathcal{C}^{\rm op}\to\mathsf{Cat}, using a variant of the Grothendieck construction. All of the mathematics in this note is straightforward; the purpose is simply to see lenses in a broader context where some closely-related examples, such as ringed spaces and open continuous dynamical systems, can be included.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1908.02202,
  title  = {Generalized Lens Categories via functors $\mathcal{C}^{\rm op}\to\mathsf{Cat}$},
  author = {David I. Spivak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.02202},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

10 pages. (This version: fix some typos)

R2 v1 2026-06-23T10:41:06.447Z