Cartesian closed categoryIn , a is Cartesian closed if, roughly speaking, any morphism defined on a of two can be naturally identified with a morphism defined on one of the factors. These categories are particularly important in mathematical logic and the theory of programming, in that their internal language is the simply typed lambda calculus. They are generalized by , whose internal language, linear type systems, are suitable for both quantum and classical computation.
Preadditive categoryIn mathematics, specifically in , a preadditive category is another name for an Ab-category, i.e., a that is over the , Ab. That is, an Ab-category C is a such that every hom-set Hom(A,B) in C has the structure of an abelian group, and composition of morphisms is bilinear, in the sense that composition of morphisms distributes over the group operation. In formulas: and where + is the group operation. Some authors have used the term additive category for preadditive categories, but here we follow the current trend of reserving this term for certain special preadditive categories (see below).
MorphismIn mathematics, particularly in , a morphism is a structure-preserving map from one mathematical structure to another one of the same type. The notion of morphism recurs in much of contemporary mathematics. In set theory, morphisms are functions; in linear algebra, linear transformations; in group theory, group homomorphisms; in analysis and topology, continuous functions, and so on.
Presheaf (category theory)In , a branch of mathematics, a presheaf on a is a functor . If is the poset of open sets in a topological space, interpreted as a category, then one recovers the usual notion of presheaf on a topological space. A morphism of presheaves is defined to be a natural transformation of functors. This makes the collection of all presheaves on into a category, and is an example of a . It is often written as . A functor into is sometimes called a profunctor.
Representable functorIn mathematics, particularly , a representable functor is a certain functor from an arbitrary into the . Such functors give representations of an abstract category in terms of known structures (i.e. sets and functions) allowing one to utilize, as much as possible, knowledge about the category of sets in other settings. From another point of view, representable functors for a category C are the functors given with C. Their theory is a vast generalisation of upper sets in posets, and of Cayley's theorem in group theory.
GroupoidIn mathematics, especially in and homotopy theory, a groupoid (less often Brandt groupoid or virtual group) generalises the notion of group in several equivalent ways. A groupoid can be seen as a: Group with a partial function replacing the binary operation; in which every morphism is invertible. A category of this sort can be viewed as augmented with a unary operation on the morphisms, called inverse by analogy with group theory. A groupoid where there is only one object is a usual group.
Product (category theory)In , the product of two (or more) in a is a notion designed to capture the essence behind constructions in other areas of mathematics such as the Cartesian product of sets, the direct product of groups or rings, and the product of topological spaces. Essentially, the product of a family of objects is the "most general" object which admits a morphism to each of the given objects.
Exponential objectIn mathematics, specifically in , an exponential object or map object is the generalization of a function space in set theory. with all and exponential objects are called . Categories (such as of ) without adjoined products may still have an exponential law. Let be a category, let and be of , and let have all with .
Discrete categoryIn mathematics, in the field of , a discrete category is a category whose only morphisms are the identity morphisms: homC(X, X) = {idX} for all objects X homC(X, Y) = ∅ for all objects X ≠ Y Since by axioms, there is always the identity morphism between the same object, we can express the above as condition on the cardinality of the hom-set | homC(X, Y) | is 1 when X = Y and 0 when X is not equal to Y. Some authors prefer a weaker notion, where a discrete category merely needs to be equivalent to such a category.
Diagonal functorIn , a branch of mathematics, the diagonal functor is given by , which maps as well as morphisms. This functor can be employed to give a succinct alternate description of the product of objects within the : a product is a universal arrow from to . The arrow comprises the projection maps. More generally, given a , one may construct the , the objects of which are called . For each object in , there is a constant diagram that maps every object in to and every morphism in to .
