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In category theory, a branch of mathematics, an initial object of a category C is an object I in C such that for every object X in C, there exists precisely one morphism I → X. The dual notion is that of a terminal object (also called terminal element): T is terminal if for every object X in C there exists exactly one morphism X → T.
Let C be a category with finite products and a terminal object 1. A list object over an object A of C is: an object L A, a morphism o A : 1 → L A, and; a morphism s A : A × L A → L A; such that for any object B of C with maps b : 1 → B and t : A × B → B, there exists a unique f : L A → B such that the following diagram commutes:
Examples of limits and colimits in Ring include: The ring of integers Z is an initial object in Ring. The zero ring is a terminal object in Ring. The product in Ring is given by the direct product of rings. This is just the cartesian product of the underlying sets with addition and multiplication defined component-wise.
The element 0 in the zero ring is a unit, serving as its own multiplicative inverse. The unit group of the zero ring is the trivial group {0}. The element 0 in the zero ring is not a zero divisor. The only ideal in the zero ring is the zero ideal {0}, which is also the unit ideal, equal to the whole ring. This ideal is neither maximal nor prime.
Dually, a final coalgebra is a terminal object in the category of F-coalgebras. The finality provides a general framework for coinduction and corecursion. For example, using the same functor 1 + (−) as before, a coalgebra is defined as a set X together with a function f : X → (1 + X).
If A is an object of C, then the functor from C to Set that sends X to Hom C (X,A) (the set of morphisms in C from X to A) is an example of such a functor. If C is a small category (i.e. the collection of its objects forms a set), then the contravariant functors from C to Set, together with natural transformations as morphisms, form a new ...
For every category C, the free strict monoidal category Σ(C) can be constructed as follows: its objects are lists (finite sequences) A 1, ..., A n of objects of C; there are arrows between two objects A 1, ..., A m and B 1, ..., B n only if m = n, and then the arrows are lists (finite sequences) of arrows f 1: A 1 → B 1, ..., f n: A n → B ...
Each object of this category is a set, together with a function selecting some element of the set: the "basepoint". Morphisms are functions on sets which map basepoints to basepoints. In a similar fashion one can form the category of pointed spaces ( ∙ ↓ T o p ) {\displaystyle \scriptstyle {(\bullet \downarrow \mathbf {Top} )}} .