English

Methods of constructive category theory

Category Theory 2019-08-13 v1

Abstract

We give an introduction to constructive category theory by answering two guiding computational questions. The first question is: how do we compute the set of all natural transformations between two finitely presented functors like Ext\mathrm{Ext} and Tor\mathrm{Tor} over a commutative coherent ring RR? We give an answer by introducing category constructors that enable us to build up a category which is both suited for performing explicit calculations and equivalent to the category of all finitely presented functors. The second question is: how do we determine the differentials on the pages of a spectral sequence associated to a filtered cochain complex only in terms of operations directly provided by the axioms of an abelian category? Its answer relies on a constructive method for performing diagram chases based on a calculus of relations within an arbitrary abelian category.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1908.04132,
  title  = {Methods of constructive category theory},
  author = {Sebastian Posur},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.04132},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T10:45:09.418Z