module Cat.Diagram.Equaliser where

Equalisers🔗

The equaliser of two maps when it exists, represents the largest subobject of where and agree. In this sense, the equaliser is the categorical generalisation of a solution set: The solution set of an equation in one variable is largest subset of the domain (i.e. what the variable ranges over) where the left- and right-hand-sides agree.

  record is-equaliser {E} (f g : Hom A B) (equ : Hom E A) : Type (o ⊔ ℓ) where
    field
      equal     : f ∘ equ ≡ g ∘ equ
      universal : ∀ {F} {e' : Hom F A} (p : f ∘ e' ≡ g ∘ e') → Hom F E
      factors   : ∀ {F} {e' : Hom F A} {p : f ∘ e' ≡ g ∘ e'} → equ ∘ universal p ≡ e'
      unique
        : ∀ {F} {e' : Hom F A} {p : f ∘ e' ≡ g ∘ e'} {other : Hom F E}
        → equ ∘ other ≡ e'
        → other ≡ universal p
  
    equal-∘ : f ∘ equ ∘ h ≡ g ∘ equ ∘ h
    equal-∘ {h = h} =
      f ∘ equ ∘ h ≡⟨ extendl equal ⟩
      g ∘ equ ∘ h ∎
  
    unique₂
      : ∀ {F} {e' : Hom F A}  {o1 o2 : Hom F E}
      → f ∘ e' ≡ g ∘ e'
      → equ ∘ o1 ≡ e'
      → equ ∘ o2 ≡ e'
      → o1 ≡ o2
    unique₂ p q r = unique {p = p} q ∙ sym (unique r)

We can visualise the situation using the commutative diagram below:

There is also a convenient bundling of an equalising arrow together with its domain:

  record Equaliser (f g : Hom A B) : Type (o ⊔ ℓ) where
    field
      {apex}  : Ob
      equ     : Hom apex A
      has-is-eq : is-equaliser f g equ
  
    open is-equaliser has-is-eq public

Equalisers are monic🔗

As a small initial application, we prove that equaliser arrows are always monic:

  is-equaliser→is-monic
    : ∀ {E} (equ : Hom E A)
    → is-equaliser C f g equ
    → is-monic equ
  is-equaliser→is-monic equ equalises g h p =
    unique₂ (extendl equal) p refl
    where open is-equaliser equalises

Categories with all equalisers🔗

We also define a helper module for working with categories that have equalisers of all parallel pairs of morphisms.

has-equalisers : ∀ {o ℓ} → Precategory o ℓ → Type _
has-equalisers C = ∀ {a b} (f g : Hom a b) → Equaliser C f g
  where open Precategory C

module Equalisers
  {o ℓ}
  (C : Precategory o ℓ)
  (all-equalisers : has-equalisers C)
  where
  open Cat.Reasoning C
  module equaliser {a b} (f g : Hom a b) = Equaliser (all-equalisers f g)

  Equ : ∀ {a b} (f g : Hom a b) → Ob
  Equ = equaliser.apex