Related papers: Span composition using fake pullbacks
Span categories provide an abstract framework for formalizing mathematical models of certain systems. The mathematical descriptions of some systems, such as classical mechanical systems, require categories that do not have pullbacks, and…
We consider the ordinary category Span(C) of (isomorphism classes of) spans of morphisms in a category C with finite limits as needed, composed horizontally via pullback, and give a general criterion for a quotient of Span(C) to be an…
Just as binary relations between sets may be understood as jointly monic spans, so too may equivalence relations on the disjoint union of sets be understood as jointly epic cospans. With the ensuing notion of composition inherited from the…
If $\mathbf{C}$ is a category with pullbacks then there is a bicategory with the same objects as $\mathbf{C}$, spans as morphisms, and maps of spans as 2-morphisms, as shown by Benabou. Fong has developed a theory of "decorated" cospans,…
We introduce a notion of the ``explanation" of one (generalized) probabilistic model by another as particular kind of span in the category $\Prob$ of probabilistic models and morphisms. We show that explanations compose under a standard…
In this monograph we develop various aspects of the homotopy theory of exact categories. We introduce different notions of compactness and generation in exact categories $E$, and use these to study model structures on categories of chain…
We extend some properties of pullbacks which are known to hold in a Mal'tsev context to the more general context of Gumm categories. The varieties of universal algebras which are Gumm categories are precisely the congruence modular ones.…
Given any category $\mathcal{C}$ with pullbacks and a terminal object, we show that the data consisting of the objects of $\mathcal{C}$, the spans of $\mathcal{C}$, and the isomorphism classes of spans of spans of $\mathcal{C}$, forms a…
It is well known that the category of finite sets and cospans, composed by pushout, contains the universal {\em special} commutative Frobenius algebra. In this note we observe that the same construction yields also general commutative…
We survey the basics of homological algebra in exact categories in the sense of Quillen. All diagram lemmas are proved directly from the axioms, notably the five lemma, the 3 x 3-lemma and the snake lemma. We briefly discuss exact functors,…
This is the first part of a series of three strongly related papers in which three equivalent structures are studied: - internal categories in categories of monoids; defined in terms of pullbacks relative to a chosen class of spans -…
We suggest that the canonical parallel operation of processes is composition in a well-supported compact closed category of spans of reflexive graphs. We present the parallel operations of classical process algebras as derived operations…
Let $\mathcal C$ be a category with finite colimits, and let $(\mathcal E,\mathcal M)$ be a factorisation system on $\mathcal C$ with $\mathcal M$ stable under pushouts. Writing $\mathcal C;\mathcal M^{\mathrm{op}}$ for the symmetric…
We consider a notion of exact sequences in any -not necessarily exact- pointed category relative to a given (E;M)-factorization structure. We apply this notion to introduce and investigate a new notion of exact sequences of semimodules over…
We discuss the notion of a span of cospans and define, for them, horizonal and vertical composition. These compositions satisfy the interchange law if working in a topos $\mathbf{C}$ and if the span legs are monic. A bicategory is then…
We establish a correspondence between modules and spans of algebras within a general monoidal 2-category $\mathfrak{C}$. Specifically, for an algebra $A$ in $\mathfrak{C}$, we construct a normalized lax 3-functor from the 2-category of…
We characterize the class of homotopy pull-back squares by means of elementary closure properties. The so called Puppe theorem which identifies the homotopy fiber of certain maps constructed as homotopy colimits is a straightforward…
The paper defines polynomials in a bicategory $\mathscr{M}$. Polynomials in bicategories $\mathrm{Spn}\mathscr{C} \ $ of spans in a finitely complete category $\mathscr{C} \ $ agree with polynomials in $\mathscr{C} \ $ as defined by Nicola…
We introduce mappings between spaces of functions on (super)manifolds that generalize pullbacks with respect to smooth maps but are, in general, nonlinear (actually, formal). The construction is based on canonical relations and generating…
Let $M$ be a monoid and $G:\mathbf{Mon} \to \mathbf{Grp}$ be the group completion functor from monoids to groups. Given a collection $\mathcal{X}$ of submonoids of $M$ and for each $N\in \mathcal{X}$ a collection $\mathcal{Y}_N$ of…