English

Large limit sketches and topological space objects

Category Theory 2023-09-11 v2 General Topology

Abstract

For a (possibly large) realized limit sketch S\mathcal{S} such that every S\mathcal{S}-model is small in a suitable sense we show that the category of cocontinuous functors Mod(S)C\mathsf{Mod}(\mathcal{S}) \to \mathcal{C} into a cocomplete category C\mathcal{C} is equivalent to the category ModC(Sop)\mathsf{Mod}_{\mathcal{C}}(\mathcal{S}^{\mathrm{op}}) of C\mathcal{C}-valued Sop\mathcal{S}^{\mathrm{op}}-models. From this result we deduce universal properties of several examples of cocomplete categories appearing in practice. It can be applied in particular to infinitary Lawvere theories, generalizing the well-known case of finitary Lawvere theories. We also look at a large limit sketch that models Top\mathsf{Top}, study the corresponding notion of an internal net-based topological space object, and deduce from our main result that cocontinuous functors TopC\mathsf{Top} \to \mathcal{C} into a cocomplete category C\mathcal{C} correspond to net-based cotopological space objects internal to C\mathcal{C}. Finally, we describe a limit sketch that models Topop\mathsf{Top}^{\mathrm{op}} and deduce from our main result that continuous functors TopC\mathsf{Top} \to \mathcal{C} into a complete category C\mathcal{C} correspond to frame-based topological space objects internal to C\mathcal{C}. Thus, we characterize Top\mathsf{Top} both as a cocomplete and as a complete category. Thereby we get two new conceptual proofs of Isbell's classification of cocontinuous functors TopTop\mathsf{Top} \to \mathsf{Top} in terms of topological topologies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2106.11115,
  title  = {Large limit sketches and topological space objects},
  author = {Martin Brandenburg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.11115},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

42 pages. v2: several improvements

R2 v1 2026-06-24T03:25:37.856Z