English

Dirichlet Polynomials form a Topos

Category Theory 2020-11-05 v2

Abstract

One can think of power series or polynomials in one variable, such as P(x)=2x3+x+5P(x)=2x^3+x+5, as functors from the category Set\mathsf{Set} of sets to itself; these are known as polynomial functors. Denote by PolySet\mathsf{Poly}_{\mathsf{Set}} the category of polynomial functors on Set\mathsf{Set} and natural transformations between them. The constants 0,10,1 and operations +,×+,\times that occur in P(x)P(x) are actually the initial and terminal objects and the coproduct and product in PolySet\mathsf{Poly}_{\mathsf{Set}}. Just as the polynomial functors on Set\mathsf{Set} are the copresheaves that can be written as sums of representables, one can express any Dirichlet series, e.g.\ n=0nx\sum_{n=0}^\infty n^x, as a coproduct of representable presheaves. A Dirichlet polynomial is a finite Dirichlet series, that is, a finite sum of representables nxn^x. We discuss how both polynomial functors and their Dirichlet analogues can be understood in terms of bundles, and go on to prove that the category of Dirichlet polynomials is an elementary topos.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2003.04827,
  title  = {Dirichlet Polynomials form a Topos},
  author = {David I. Spivak and David Jaz Myers},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.04827},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

11 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T14:10:25.123Z