nLab cocomplete category

Contents

Context

Category theory

Limits and colimits

Contents

Definition

A category CC is cocomplete if it has all small colimits: that is, if every small diagram F:DCF: D \to C where DD is a small category has a colimit in CC. Equivalently, a category CC is cocomplete if it has all small wide pushouts and an initial object.

The most natural morphisms between cocomplete categories are the cocontinuous functors.

Properties

Examples

Many familiar categories of mathematical structures are cocomplete: to name just a few examples, Set, Grp, Ab, Vect and Top are cocomplete.

For a small category CC, the presheaf category [C op,Set][C^{op},Set] is cocomplete, and the Yoneda embedding exhibits it as the free cocompletion of CC.

The 2-category of cocomplete categories

Properties

References

  • J.-M. Maranda, Some remarks on limits in categories. Canadian Mathematical Bulletin 5 2 (1962) 133-146 [doi:10.4153/CMB-1962-015-0]
  • Ernest Manes, A triple miscellany: Some aspects of the theory of algebra over a triple, PhD thesis, Wesleyan University, 1967. [pdf]
  • Andrew M. Pitts, On product and change of base for toposes , Cah. Top. Géom. Diff. Cat. XXVI no.1 (1985) pp.43-61.

Last revised on June 30, 2025 at 15:14:39. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.