symmetric monoidal (∞,1)-category of spectra
A coalgebra over an endofunctor is like a coalgebra over a comonad, but without a notion of associativity.
The concept plays a role in computer science for models of state-based computation (see also monad (in computer science)). The concept of the terminal coalgebra of an endofunctor is a way of encoding coinductive types.
For a category and endofunctor , a coalgebra of is an object in together with a morphism .
Given two coalgebras , , a coalgebra homomorphism is a morphism which respects the coalgebra structures:
(The object is sometimes called the carrier of the coalgebra.)
The dual concept is an algebra for an endofunctor. Both algebras and coalgebras for endofunctors on are special cases of algebras for C-C bimodules.
If is equipped with the structure of a monad, then a coalgebra for it is equivalently an endomorphism in the corresponding Kleisli category. In this case the canonical monoidal category structure on endomorphisms induces a tensor product on those coalgebras.
If is a copointed endofunctor with copoint , then by a coalgebra for one usually means a pointed coalgebra, i.e. one such that .
Each of the following examples is of the form , (description of endofunctor ) : (description of coalgebra). Where it appears, is a given fixed set.
See coalgebra for examples on categories of modules.
Let be the category of posets. Consider the endofunctor
that acts by ordinal product? with
where the right side is given the dictionary order, not the usual product order.
The terminal coalgebra of is order isomorphic to the non-negative real line , with its standard order.
The real interval may be characterized, as a topological space, as the terminal coalgebra for the functor on two-pointed topological spaces which takes a space to the space . Here, , for and , is the disjoint union of and with and identified, and and as the two base points.
Michael Barr, Terminal coalgebras for endofunctors on sets, Theoretical Comp. Sci. 114 (1993) 299–315 [pdf, pdf]
Dirk Pattinson, An Introduction to the Theory of Coalgebras (2003) [pdf, pdf]
Jiri Adamek, Introduction to coalgebras, Theory and Applications of Categories 14 8 (2005) 157-199 [tac:14-08, pdf]
There are connections between the theory of coalgebras and modal logic for which see
and also
and with quantum mechanics, for which see this and
Here are two blog discussions of coalgebra theory:
Last revised on October 8, 2024 at 22:12:13. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.