English

Relative fixed points of functors

Category Theory 2025-09-03 v3 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

We show how the relatively initial or relatively terminal fixed points for a well-behaved functor FF form a pair of adjoint functors between FF-coalgebras and FF-algebras. We use the language of locally presentable categories to find sufficient conditions for existence of this adjunction. We show that relative fixed points may be characterized as (co)equalizers of the free (co)monad on FF. In particular, when FF is a polynomial functor on Set\mathsf{Set} the relative fixed points are a quotient or subset of the free term algebra or the cofree term coalgebra. We give examples of the relative fixed points for polynomial functors and an example which is the Sierpinski carpet. Lastly, we prove a general preservation result for relative fixed points.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2310.03445,
  title  = {Relative fixed points of functors},
  author = {Ezra Schoen and Jade Master and Clemens Kupke},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.03445},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

26 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:41:24.160Z