Nodal decomposition

In category theory, an abstract mathematical discipline, a nodal decompositionTemplate:Sfn of a morphism
is a representation of
as a product
, where
is a strong epimorphism,[1]Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
a bimorphism, and
a strong monomorphism.[2]Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Uniqueness and notations

If it exists, the nodal decomposition is unique up to an isomorphism in the following sense: for any two nodal decompositions
and
there exist isomorphisms
and
such that

This property justifies some special notations for the elements of the nodal decomposition:
β here and are called the nodal coimage of , and the nodal image of , and the nodal reduced part of .
In these notations the nodal decomposition takes the form
Connection with the basic decomposition in pre-abelian categories
In a pre-abelian category each morphism has a standard decomposition
- ,
called the basic decomposition (here , , and are respectively the image, the coimage and the reduced part of the morphism ).

If a morphism
in a pre-abelian category
has a nodal decomposition, then there exist morphisms
and
which (being not necessarily isomorphisms) connect the nodal decomposition with the basic decomposition by the following identities:
Categories with nodal decomposition
A category is called a category with nodal decompositionTemplate:Sfn if each morphism has a nodal decomposition in . This property plays an important role in constructing envelopes and refinements in .
In an abelian category the basic decomposition
is always nodal. As a corollary, all abelian categories have nodal decomposition.
If a pre-abelian category is linearly complete,[3] well-powered in strong monomorphisms[4] and co-well-powered in strong epimorphisms,[5] then has nodal decomposition.Template:Sfn
More generally, suppose a category is linearly complete,[3] well-powered in strong monomorphisms,[4] co-well-powered in strong epimorphisms,[5] and in addition strong epimorphisms discern monomorphisms[6] in , and, dually, strong monomorphisms discern epimorphisms[7] in , then has nodal decomposition.Template:Sfn
The category Ste of stereotype spaces (being non-abelian) has nodal decomposition,Template:Sfn as well as the (non-additive) category SteAlg of stereotype algebras .Template:Sfn
Notes
References
- β An epimorphism is said to be strong, if for any monomorphism and for any morphisms and such that there exists a morphism , such that and .

- β A monomorphism is said to be strong, if for any epimorphism and for any morphisms and such that there exists a morphism , such that and
- β 3.0 3.1 A category is said to be linearly complete, if any functor from a linearly ordered set into has direct and inverse limits.
- β 4.0 4.1 A category is said to be well-powered in strong monomorphisms, if for each object the category of all strong monomorphisms into is skeletally small (i.e. has a skeleton which is a set).
- β 5.0 5.1 A category is said to be co-well-powered in strong epimorphisms, if for each object the category of all strong epimorphisms from is skeletally small (i.e. has a skeleton which is a set).
- β It is said that strong epimorphisms discern monomorphisms in a category , if each morphism , which is not a monomorphism, can be represented as a composition , where is a strong epimorphism which is not an isomorphism.
- β It is said that strong monomorphisms discern epimorphisms in a category , if each morphism , which is not an epimorphism, can be represented as a composition , where is a strong monomorphism which is not an isomorphism.