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An (∞,1)-category is called locally presentable if it has all small (∞,1)-colimits and its objects are presented under (∞,1)-colimits by a small set of small objects. This is the direct analog in (∞,1)-category theory of the notion of locally presentable category in category theory.
There is a wealth of equivalent ways to make precise what this means, which are listed below. Two particularly useful ones are:
A locally presentable -category is an accessible (∞,1)-category that admits all small (∞,1)-colimits.
The locally presentable -categories are precisely the accessibly embedded localizations/reflections of an (∞,1)-category of (∞,1)-presheaves. In particular, if the reflector of this reflection is a left exact (∞,1)-functor, then is an (∞,1)-topos.
See also at locally presentable categories - introduction.
Warning on terminology. In Lurie the term presentable -category is used for what we call a locally presentable -category here, in order to be in line with the established terminology of locally presentable category in ordinary category theory.
Terminological variant. The term “-compactly generated (∞,1)-category” is sometimes used to mean “locally -presentable (∞,1)-category. See there for a discussion of usage differences.
An (∞,1)-category is called locally presentable if
it is accessible
it has all small (∞,1)-colimits.
That is locally presentable is equivalent to each of the following equivalent characterizations.
is locally small, with all small (∞,1)-colimits such that there is a small set of small objects which generates all of under (∞,1)-colimits.
is the localization of an (∞,1)-category of (∞,1)-presheaves along an accessible (∞,1)-functor:
there exists a small (∞,1)-category and a pair of adjoint (∞,1)-functors
such that the right adjoint is full and faithful and accessible.
(if here in addition is left exact then is an (∞,1)-category of (∞,1)-sheaves on ).
There exists a combinatorial simplicial model category and and equivalence of (infinity,1)-categories with the simplicial localization of .
More explicitly: with incarnated as a quasi-category there is an equivalence of quasi-categories of with the homotopy coherent nerve of the full sSet-enriched subcategory of on the bifibrant objects.
is accessible and for every regular cardinal the full sub-(∞,1)-category on the compact objects admits -small (∞,1)-colimits.
There exists a regular cardinal such that is -accessible and admits -small colimits;
There exists a regular cardinal , a small (∞,1)-category with -small colimits and an equivalence with the category of -ind-objects of .
This is Lurie, Thm. 5.5.1.1 & Prop. A.3.7.6, following Simpson 99, Dugger 00; review in Cisinski 19, Thm. 7.11.16, Rem. 7.11.17.
That localizations correspond to combinatorial simplicial model categories is essentially Dugger's theorem (Dugger): every combinatorial model category arises, up to Quillen equivalence, as the left Bousfield localization of the global projective model structure on simplicial presheaves.
Locally presentable -categories have a number of nice properties, and therefore it is of interest to consider as morphisms between them only those (∞,1)-functors that preserve these properties. It turns out that it is useful to consider colimit preserving functors. By the adjoint (∞,1)-functor theorem these are precisely the functors that have a right adjoint (∞,1)-functor.
Write Pr(∞,1)Cat (∞,1)Cat for the (non-full) sub-(∞,1)-category of (∞,1)Cat (the collection of not-necessarily small -categories) on
those objects that are locally presentable -categories;
those morphisms that are colimit-preserving (∞,1)-functors.
This is Lurie, def. 5.5.3.1.
This -category in turn as special properties. More on that is at symmetric monoidal (∞,1)-category of presentable (∞,1)-categories.
We indicate stepts in the proof of prop. .
Let be an (∞,1)-functor which exhibits as an idempotent completion of . Let be a regular cardinal. Then the induced functor on (∞,1)-categories of ind-objects
This is (Lurie, lemma 5.5.1.3).
Let be an (∞,1)-functor between (∞,1)-categories which have -filtered (∞,1)-colimits, and let be a right adjoint (∞,1)-functor of . If preserves -filtered (∞,1)-colimits then preserves -compact objects.
This is Lurie, lemma 5.5.1.4.
(…)
For a locally presentable -category and a diagram in , also the over (∞,1)-category as well as the under--category are locally presentable.
This is HTT, prop. 5.5.3.10, prop. 5.5.3.11.
Since Pr(∞,1)Cat admits all small limits, we obtain new locally presentable -categories by forming limits over given ones. In particular the product of locally presentable -categories is again locally presentable.
In the first definition of locally presentable -category above only the existence of colimits is postulated. An important fact is that it follows automatically that also all small limits exist:
A representable functor preserves limits (see (∞,1)-Yoneda embedding). If is locally presentable, then also the converse holds:
If is a locally presentable -category then an (∞,1)-functor is a representable functor precisely if it preserves limits.
This is HTT, prop. 5.5.2.2.
We need to prove that a limit-preserving functor is representable. By the above characterizations we know that is an accessible localization of a presheaf category.
So consider first the case that is a presheaf category. Write
for the precomposition of with the (∞,1)-Yoneda embedding. Then let
the functor represented by .
We claim that , which proves that is represented by : since both and preserve limits (hence colimits as functors on ) it follows from the fact that the Yoneda embedding exhibits the universal co-completion of that it is sufficient to show that . But this is the case precisely by the statement of the full (∞,1)-Yoneda lemma.
Now consider more generally the case that is a reflective sub-(∞,1)-category of . Let be the left adjoint reflector. Since it respects all colimits, the composite
respects all limits. By the above it is therefore represented by some object .
By the general properties of reflective sub-(∞,1)-categories, we have that is the full sub-(∞,1)-category of on those objects that are local objects with respect to the morphisms that sends to equivalences. But , since it presents , is manifestly local in this sense and therefore also represents . But on the functor is equivalent to the identity, so that this is equivlent to .
This statement has the following important consequence:
A locally presentable -category has all small limits.
This is HTT, prop. 5.5.2.4.
We may compute the limit after applying the (∞,1)-Yoneda embedding . Since this is a full and faithful (∞,1)-functor it is sufficient to check that the limit computed in lands in the essential image of . But by the above lemma, this amounts to checking that the limit over limit-preserving functors is itself a limit-preserving functor. This follows using that limits of functors are computed objectwise and that generally limits commute with each other (see limit in a quasi-category):
to check for a diagram of limit-preserving functors that is a functor that commutes with all limits, let be a diagram and compute (verbatim as in ordinary category theory)
By prop. locally presentable -categories are equivalently those (∞,1)-categories which are presented by a combinatorial simplicial model category in that they are the full simplicial subcategory on bifibrant objects of (or, equivalently, the quasi-category associated to this simplicially enriched category).
(See also at Ho(CombModCat)).
Under this presentation, equivalence of (∞,1)-categories between locally presentable -categories corresponds to zigzags of Quillen equivalences between presenting combinatorial simplicial model categories:
and are equivalent as (∞,1)-categories precisely if they are connected by a zig-zag of simplicial Quillen equivalences
This is Lurie, remark A.3.7.7.
Partly due to the fact that simplicial model categories have been studied for a longer time – partly because they are simply more tractable than (∞,1)-categories – many -categories are indeed handled in terms of such a presentation by a simplicial model category.
The canonical example is the presentation of the (∞,1)-category of (∞,1)-sheaves on an ordinary (1-categorical) site by the simplicial model category of simplicial presheaves on .
The basic example is:
∞Grpd is locally presentable.
According to the discussion at (∞,1)-colimit – Tensoring with an ∞-groupoid every ∞-groupoid is the colimit over itself of the functor contant on the point, the terminal -groupoid. This is clearly compact, and hence generates ∞Grpd.
An (∞,1)-topos is precisely a locally presentable -category where the localization functor also preserves finite limits.
For and locally presentable -categories, write for the full sub--category on left-adjoint -functors. This is itself locally presentable
This is HTT, prop 5.5.3.8
Notice that this makes the symmetric monoidal (∞,1)-category of presentable (∞,1)-categories closed .
For an -category with finite products, the -category of algebras over regarded as an (∞,1)-algebraic theory is locally presentable.
Locally presentable categories: Cocomplete possibly-large categories generated under filtered colimits by small generators under small relations. Equivalently, accessible reflective localizations of free cocompletions. Accessible categories omit the cocompleteness requirement; toposes add the requirement of a left exact localization.
The theory of locally presentable -categories was first implicitly conceived in terms of model category presentations in
The full intrinsic -categorical theory appears in
with section A.3.7 establishing the relation to combinatorial model categories and Dugger's theorem in HTT, prop A.3.7.6.
The statement of Dugger's theorem – of which the characterization of locally presentable -categories as localizations of -presheaf categories is a variant – is due to
Further textbook account:
Exposition and review:
On factorication of functors between presentable -categories as coreflections followed by a tower of monadic functors:
Discussion internal to any (∞,1)-topos:
Last revised on June 18, 2023 at 15:15:49. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.