# Michael Shulman slice 2-category

The slice 2-category of a 2-category $K$ over an object $X$ is the 2-category whose objects are morphisms $A\to X$ in $K$, whose morphisms are triangles in $K$ that commute up to a specified isomorphism, and whose 2-cells are 2-cells in $K$ forming a commutative 2-diagram with the specified isomorphisms in triangles.

In particular, any 2-cell in $K/X$ must become an isomorphism in $X$. This means that more information is lost when passing to slice 2-categories than for slice 1-categories, and slice 2-categories are not always well-behaved; they often fail to inherit useful properties of $K$. Frequently a better replacement is the fibrational slice.

If $K$ has pullbacks, then for any $f:X\to Y$ there is a pullback functor $f^*:K/Y\to K/X$. However, this does not make the assignation $X\mapsto K/X$ into a functor $K^{op}\to Cat$ or $K^{coop}\to Cat$, since there is no way to define it on 2-cells. This is one reason to use fibrational slices instead.

Just as in the 1-categorical case, the pullback functor $f^*:K/Y\to K/X$ always has a left adjoint $\Sigma_f:K/X\to K/Y$ given by composition with $f$. However, $f^*$ cannot be expected to have a right adjoint $\Pi_f$ for all maps $f$, since this fails even in $Cat$. It is true in $Cat$ when $f$ is a fibration or opfibration, however; see exponentials in a 2-category.

Revised on February 20, 2009 19:30:35 by Mike Shulman (75.3.140.11)