Set-theoretic solutions to the Yang–Baxter equation, skew-braces, and related near-rings

Skew-braces have been introduced recently by Guarnieri and Vendramin. The structure group of a non-degenerate solution to the Yang–Baxter equation is a skew-brace, and every skew-brace gives a set-theoretic solution to the Yang–Baxter equation. It is proved that skew-braces arise from near-rings with a distinguished exponential map. For a fixed skew-brace, the corresponding near-rings with exponential form a category. The terminal object is a near-ring of self-maps, while the initial object is a near-ring which gives a complete invariant of the skew-brace. The radicals of split local near-rings with a central residue field [Formula: see text] are characterized as [Formula: see text]-braces with a compatible near-ring structure. Under this correspondence, [Formula: see text]-braces are radicals of local near-rings with radical square zero.

Automorphisms of types in certain type theories and representation of finite groups

The automorphism groups of types in several systems of type theory are studied. It is shown that in simply typed λ-calculus λ1βη and in its extension with surjective pairing and terminal object these groups correspond exactly to the groups of automorphisms of finite trees. In second-order λ-calculus and in Luo's framework (LF) with dependent products, any finite group may be represented.

Hölder categories

Hölder categories are invented to provide an axiomatic foundation for the study of categories of archimedean lattice-ordered algebraic structures. The basis of such a study is Hölder’s Theorem (1908), stating that the archimedean totally ordered groups are precisely the subgroups of the additive real numbers ℝ with the usual addition and ordering, which remains the single most consequential result in the studies of lattice-ordered algebraic systems since Birkhoff and Fuchs to the present.This study originated with interest in W*, the category of all archimedean lattice-ordered groups with a designated strong order unit, and the ℓ-homomorphisms which preserve those units, and, more precisely, with interest in the epireflections on W*. In the course of this study, certain abstract notions jumped to the forefront. Two of these, in particular, seem to have been mostly overlooked; some notion of simplicity appears to be essential to any kind of categorical study of W*, as are the quasi-initial objects in a category. Once these two notions have been brought into the conversation, a Hölder category may then be defined as one which is complete, well powered, and in which(a) the initial object I is simple, and(b) there is a simple quasi-initial coseparator R.In this framework it is shown that the epireflective hull of R is the least monoreflective class. And, when I = R — that is, the initial element is simple and a coseparator — a theorem of Bezhanishvili, Morandi, and Olberding, for bounded archimedean f-algebras with identity, can be be generalized, as follows: for any Hölder category subject to the stipulation that the initial object is a simple coseparator, every uniformly nontrivial reflection — meaning that the reflection of each non-terminal object is non-terminal — is a monoreflection.Also shown here is the fact that the atoms in the class of epireflective classes are the epireflective hulls of the simple quasi-initial objects. From this observation one easily deduces a converse to the result of Bezhanishvili, Morandi, and Olberding: if in a Hölder category every epireflection is a monoreflection, then the initial object is a coseparator.

Completions of Non-Symmetric Metric Spaces Via Enriched Categories

It is known from [Lawvere, Repr. Theory Appl. Categ. 1: 1–37 2002] that nonsymmetric metric spaces correspond to enrichments over the monoidal closed category [0, ∞]. We use enriched category theory and in particular a generic notion of flatness to describe various completions for these spaces. We characterise the weights of colimits commuting in the base category [0, ∞] with the conical terminal object and cotensors. Those can be interpreted in metric terms as very general filters, which we call filters of type 1. This correspondence extends the one between minimal Cauchy filters and weights which are adjoint as modules. Translating elements of enriched category theory into the metric context, one obtains a notion of convergence for filters of type 1 with a related completeness notion for spaces, for which there exists a universal completion. Another smaller class of flat presheaves is also considered both in the context of both metric spaces and preorders. (The latter being enrichments over the monoidal closed category 2.) The corresponding completion for preorders is the so-called dcpo completion.

A confluent reduction for the λ-calculus with surjective pairing and terminal object

We exhibit confluent and effectively weakly normalizing (thus decidable) rewriting systems for the full equational theory underlying cartesian closed categories, and for polymorphic extensions of it. The λ-calculus extended with surjective pairing has been well-studied in the last two decades. It is not confluent in the untyped case, and confluent in the typed case. But to the best of our knowledge the present work is the first treatment of the lambda calculus extended with surjective pairing and terminal object via a confluent rewriting system, and is the first solution to the decidability problem of the full equational theory of Cartesian Closed Categories extended with polymorphic types. Our approach yields conservativity results as well. In separate papers we apply our results to the study of provable type isomorphisms, and to the decidability of equality in a typed λ-calculus with subtyping.

Simulating expansions without expansions

We add extensional equalities for the functional and product types to the typed λ-calculus with, in addition to products and terminal object, sums and bounded recursion (a version of recursion that does not allow recursive calls of infinite length). We provide a confluent and strongly normalizing (thus decidable) rewriting system for the calculus that stays confluent when allowing unbounded recursion. To do this, we turn the extensional equalities into expansion rules, and not into contractions as is done traditionally. We first prove the calculus to be weakly confluent, which is a more complex and interesting task than for the usual λ-calculus. Then we provide an effective mechanism to simulate expansions without expansion rules, so that the strong normalization of the calculus can be derived from that of the underlying, traditional, non-extensional system. These results give us the confluence of the full calculus, but we also show how to deduce confluence directly form our simulation technique without using the weak confluence property.

On the Limitations of Sketches

Call a category "sketchable" if it is the category of models in sets of some sketch. This paper explores the subtle boundary between sketchable and non-sketchable categories. We show that the category of small categories that have at least one initial object and functors that take an initial object to an initial object is sketchable. The same is true for weak initial objects, but is false for subinitial objects (that every object has at most one arrow to). Analogous results hold if we substitute finite limits for terminal object. We also show that the category of groups and center-preserving homomorphisms is not sketchable. We describe briefly how "higher-order" sketches can fill these gaps.