Not signed in (Sign In)

Not signed in

Want to take part in these discussions? Sign in if you have an account, or apply for one below

  • Sign in using OpenID

Site Tag Cloud

2-category 2-category-theory abelian-categories adjoint algebra algebraic algebraic-geometry algebraic-topology analysis analytic-geometry arithmetic arithmetic-geometry book bundles calculus categorical categories category category-theory chern-weil-theory cohesion cohesive-homotopy-type-theory cohomology colimits combinatorics comma complex complex-geometry computable-mathematics computer-science constructive cosmology deformation-theory descent diagrams differential differential-cohomology differential-equations differential-geometry digraphs duality elliptic-cohomology enriched fibration finite foundation foundations functional-analysis functor gauge-theory gebra geometric-quantization geometry graph graphs gravity grothendieck group group-theory harmonic-analysis higher higher-algebra higher-category-theory higher-differential-geometry higher-geometry higher-lie-theory higher-topos-theory homological homological-algebra homotopy homotopy-theory homotopy-type-theory index-theory integration integration-theory k-theory lie-theory limits linear linear-algebra locale localization logic mathematics measure-theory modal modal-logic model model-category-theory monad monads monoidal monoidal-category-theory morphism motives motivic-cohomology nlab noncommutative noncommutative-geometry number-theory of operads operator operator-algebra order-theory pages pasting philosophy physics pro-object probability probability-theory quantization quantum quantum-field quantum-field-theory quantum-mechanics quantum-physics quantum-theory question representation representation-theory riemannian-geometry scheme schemes set set-theory sheaf simplicial space spin-geometry stable-homotopy-theory stack string string-theory superalgebra supergeometry svg symplectic-geometry synthetic-differential-geometry terminology theory topology topos topos-theory tqft type type-theory universal variational-calculus

Vanilla 1.1.10 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

Welcome to nForum
If you want to take part in these discussions either sign in now (if you have an account), apply for one now (if you don't).
    • CommentRowNumber1.
    • CommentAuthorDavid_Corfield
    • CommentTimeDec 17th 2010

    I wonder how much of what Terry Tao discusses here is understandable as completion from the nLab perspective.

    • CommentRowNumber2.
    • CommentAuthorTobyBartels
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2010

    The discussion at completion is for completions that are unique up to unique isomorphism (or more generally, such that the \infty-groupoid of completions is contractible). But most of Tao’s examples are not so unique; some are not even unique up to multiple isomorphism. Specifically:

    • algebraic closure (unique up to isomorphism, but not up to unique isomorphism),
    • metric completion (unique up to unique isomorphism, and already an example on our page),
    • logical completion (not even unique up to isomorphism, since there are logical completions of arbitrarily large cardinality),
    • elementary completion (not even unique up to isomorphism, I think).

    I’ve put these examples at Completion#nonunique

    • CommentRowNumber3.
    • CommentAuthorHarry Gindi
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2010
    • (edited Dec 19th 2010)

    The Henselization is unique up to unique isomorphism, but the strict Henselization is not!

    The difference is that you have to take a separable closure, in a sense, for the strict henselization.

    • CommentRowNumber4.
    • CommentAuthorDavid_Corfield
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2010

    That’s interesting Toby. So is category theory not so well equipped to deal with these looser completions?

    • CommentRowNumber5.
    • CommentAuthorTim_Porter
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2010

    What about the old ideas of Yves Diers on multiadjoints etc. Some perhaps of the cases that are mentioned might come under that set of notions. …but I thought his stuff had been absorbed in a slightly different terinology into more everyday adjoint functor theory so may be I am illinformed.

    • CommentRowNumber6.
    • CommentAuthorTobyBartels
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2010

    So is category theory not so well equipped to deal with these looser completions?

    I think that the problem is with the completions, not with the category theory. Any approach is going to find them trickier, because they really are more complicated. With category theory (or higher groupoid theory, to be precise), I can even explain how they are more complicated: just as noncontractible spaces are more complicated than contractible ones. (Not to suggest that other approaches can’t also explain this.)

    • CommentRowNumber7.
    • CommentAuthorMike Shulman
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2010

    @Tim: I think maybe the relevant notion is one that I would call a “weak adjoint”, which satisfies the existence but not the uniqueness part of the usual universal property. So that, for example, algebraically closed fields would be “weakly reflective” in fields.

    • adjoint: there exists a single object through which factorizations exist and are unique
    • weak adjoint: there exists a single object through which factorizations exist
    • multi-adjoint: there exists a set of objects such that factorizations exist through a unique one of them and that factorization is unique
    • weak multi-adjoint: there exists a set of objects such that factorizations through one of them exist, not necessarily unique. This is the same as the solution-set condition!

    I think in the same way the adjoint functor theorem uses limits to get from the solution-set condition to an honest adjoint, one can use products alone to get to a weak adjoint, or connected limits to get to a multi-adjoint. There’s some discussion along these lines in Chapter 4 of “Locally Presentable and Accessible Categories”.

    • CommentRowNumber8.
    • CommentAuthorHarry Gindi
    • CommentTimeDec 19th 2010
    • (edited Dec 19th 2010)

    Yes, and it satisfies a versal property! That is to say: universal - uni(queness) = = versal!

    I should note that the algebraic closure example becomes a special case of the strict henselization in characteristic zero for sure. It might be true in prime characteristic, but there’s some annoying bits to deal with regarding inseparable extensions. I think you can do something like take a maximal inseparable extension, which is actually unique, then apply strict henselization.

    • CommentRowNumber9.
    • CommentAuthorMike Shulman
    • CommentTimeDec 20th 2010

    Perhaps of particular relevance is Exercise 4.d in “Locally Presentable and Accessible Categories”, which characterizes a particular class of “weak reflections” which are unique up to non-unique isomorphism (which weak reflections in general are not).

    • CommentRowNumber10.
    • CommentAuthorzskoda
    • CommentTimeDec 20th 2010
    • (edited Dec 20th 2010)

    Completions of schemes along subschemes are a prime source of formal schemes. In the functor of points approach to formal schemes, this completion boils down to a cartesian product. In one variant, see Durov’s contribution, paragraph 7.11 in our joint paper math.RT/0604096. The label of the lower arrow in (34) has FF instead of HH, of course (the typo is removed in published version).