nLab
finitely complete category

Definition

A finitely complete category (which the Elephant calls a cartesian category ) is a category $C$ which admits all finite limits, that is all limits for any diagrams $F: J \to C$ with $J$ a finite category. Finitely complete categories are also called lex categories. They are also called (at least by Johnstone in the Elephant) cartesian categories, although this term more often means a cartesian monoidal category.

Small finitely complete categories form a 2-category, Lex.

Variants

There are several well known reductions of this concept to classes of special limits. For example, a category is finitely complete if and only if:

• It has a terminal object and admits all binary products and equalizers; or
• It has a terminal object and admits all binary pullbacks.

An appropriate notion of morphism between finitely complete categories $C$, $D$ is a left exact functor, or a functor that preserves finite limits (also called a lex functor, a cartesian functor, or a finitely continuous functor). A functor preserves finite limits if and only if:

• it preserves terminal objects, binary products, and equalizers; or
• it preserves terminal objects and binary pullbacks.

Since these conditions frequently come up individually, it may be worthwhile listing them separately:

• $F: C \to D$ preserves terminal objects if $F(t_C)$ is terminal in $D$ whenever $t_C$ is terminal in $C$;

• $F: C \to D$ preserves binary products if the pair of maps

  $$F(c) \stackrel{F(\pi_1)}{\leftarrow} F(c \times d) \stackrel{F(\pi_2)}{\to} F(d)$$

  exhibits $F(c \times d)$ as a product of $F(c)$ and $F(d)$, where $\pi_1: c \times d \to c$ and $\pi_2: c \times d \to d$ are the product projections in $C$;

• $F: C \to D$ preserves equalizers if the map

  $$F(i): F(e) \to F(c)$$

  is the equalizer of $F(f), F(g): F(c) \stackrel{\to}{\to} F(d)$, whenever $i: e \to c$ is the equalizer of $f, g: c \stackrel{\to}{\to} d$ in $C$.

Related concepts

• locally cartesian category

• cartesian category, cartesian functor, cartesian logic, cartesian theory

• regular category, regular functor, regular logic, regular theory, regular coverage, regular topos

• coherent category, coherent functor, coherent logic, coherent theory, coherent coverage, coherent topos

• geometric category, geometric functor, geometric logic, geometric theory

References

Section A1.2 in

• Peter Johnstone, Sketches of an Elephant