English

Pseudolimits for Tangent Categories with Applications to Equivariant Algebraic and Differential Geometry

Category Theory 2026-01-14 v3 Algebraic Geometry

Abstract

In this paper we show that if C\mathscr{C} is a category and if F ⁣:CopCatF\colon\mathscr{C}^{\operatorname{op}} \to \mathfrak{Cat} is a pseudofunctor such that for each object XX of C\mathscr{C} the category F(X)F(X) is a tangent category and for each morphism ff of C\mathscr{C} the functor F(f)F(f) is part of a strong tangent morphism (F(f),fα)(F(f),{}_{f}{\alpha}) and that furthermore the natural transformations fα{}_{f}{\alpha} vary pseudonaturally in Cop\mathscr{C}^{\operatorname{op}}, then there is a tangent structure on the pseudolimit PC(F)\mathbf{PC}(F) which is induced by the tangent structures on the categories F(X)F(X) together with how they vary through the functors F(f)F(f). We use this observation to show that the forgetful 22-functor Forget:TanCat\operatorname{Forget}:\mathfrak{Tan} \to \mathfrak{Cat} creates and preserves pseudolimits indexed by 11-categories. As an application, this allows us to describe how equivariant descent interacts with the tangent structures on the category of smooth (real) manifolds and on various categories of (algebraic) varieties over a field.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.11753,
  title  = {Pseudolimits for Tangent Categories with Applications to Equivariant Algebraic and Differential Geometry},
  author = {Dorette Pronk and Geoff Vooys},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.11753},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

66 Pages with changes to reflect publication version. To appear in Mathematical Structures in Computer Science special issue on Differential Structures