module Cat.Instances.Core where

The core of a category🔗

The core of a category $C$ is the maximal sub-groupoid of $C :$ the category $Core (C)$ constructed by keeping only the invertible morphisms. Since the identity is invertible, and invertibility is closed under composition, we can construct this as a wide subcategory of $C .$

Core : ∀ {o ℓ} → Precategory o ℓ → Precategory o ℓ
Core C = Wide sub where
  open Cat.Reasoning C

  sub : Wide-subcat C _
  sub .Wide-subcat.P        = is-invertible
  sub .Wide-subcat.P-prop _ = is-invertible-is-prop
  sub .Wide-subcat.P-id     = id-invertible
  sub .Wide-subcat.P-∘      = invertible-∘

Core-is-groupoid : ∀ {o ℓ} {C : Precategory o ℓ} → is-pregroupoid (Core C)
Core-is-groupoid {C = C} f =
  Core.make-invertible _ (wide f-inv.inv ((f .witness) C.invertible⁻¹))
    (Wide-hom-path f-inv.invl)
    (Wide-hom-path f-inv.invr)
  where
    module C = Cat.Reasoning C
    module f-inv = C.is-invertible (f .witness)

We have mentioned that the core is the maximal sub-groupoid of $C :$ we can regard it as the cofree groupoid on a category, summarised by the following universal property. Suppose $C$ is a groupoid and $D$ is some category. Any functor $F : C \to D$ must factor through the core of $D .$

module _
  {oc ℓc od ℓd} {C : Precategory oc ℓc} {D : Precategory od ℓd}
  (grpd : is-pregroupoid C)
  where

  Core-universal : (F : Functor C D) → Functor C (Core D)
  Core-universal F .F₀ x = F .F₀ x
  Core-universal F .F₁ f .hom = F .F₁ f
  Core-universal F .F₁ f .witness = F-map-invertible F (grpd f)
  Core-universal F .F-id = Wide-hom-path (F .F-id)
  Core-universal F .F-∘ f g = Wide-hom-path (F .F-∘ f g)

  Core-factor : (F : Functor C D) → F ≡ Forget-wide-subcat F∘ Core-universal F
  Core-factor F = Functor-path (λ _ → refl) λ _ → refl

This is dual to the free groupoid on a category, in the sense that there is a biadjoint triple $Free ⊣ U ⊣ Core,$ where $U$ is the forgetful functor from the bicategory of groupoids to the bicategory of categories.