This entry is about the concept in category theory. For the core of a ring see there.
is the groupoid which is the maximal sub-groupoid of : the subcategory consisting of all objects of but with morphisms only the isomorphisms of .
This construction extends to a 1-functor
We usually think of a groupoid as a special kind of category, but we can also think of a category as a groupoid equipped with additional morphisms. (This is possible because Grpd is a reflective subcategory of Cat.) One level decategorified, we usually think in the opposite way: a poset is a set equipped with a partial order, but we can also think of a set as a special kind of poset (specifically, a symmetric one).
Given a preordered set, regarded as a category, taking its core is the same as partitioning the set into equivalence classes of the preorder.
A combinatorial species is defined as a presheaf, that is, a contravariant functor to Set, on the core of FinSet.
Every groupoid has a contravariant functor to itself. It preserves the objects and sends the arrows to their inverses.
The core-functor of def. is right adjoint to the forgetful functor from groupoids to categories.
Given a category and a groupoid , a functor
(hence a functor out of the underlying category of ) has to send isomorphisms to isomorphisms, hence has to send every morphism of to an isomorphism in . This means that it factors through the core-inclusion
The left adjoint to is the localization functor that universally inverts every morphism in . On nerves this is Kan fibrant replacement.
The core of a dagger category consists of its unitary isomorphisms only. This is why, for example, it makes sense to think of Hilb either as a category whose morphisms are linear maps bounded by or as a dagger category whose morphisms are all linear maps; either way, the core is the same (invertible linear maps of norm exactly ).
The core of an -category is the -groupoid consisting only of equivalences at each level; the core of an -category is similarly an -groupoid: the core of a quasicategory is the maximal Kan complex inside it.
For more on this see also at category object in an (infinity,1)-category.
Last revised on July 2, 2020 at 02:04:19. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.