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Categories#

Definition: Category

A category \(\mathcal{C}\) consists of the following:

  • a class \(\mathop{\operatorname{ob}}(\mathcal{C})\) whose elements are called objects;
  • a class \(\hom(\mathcal{C})\) whose elements are called morphisms / arrows, where each morphism \(f\) has a source object \(a \in \mathop{\operatorname{ob}}(\mathcal{C})\) and a target object \(b \mathop{\operatorname{ob}}(\mathcal{C})\). We say that \(f\) is a morphism from \(a\) to \(b\).
  • a compo

Notation

To expresses that \(f\) is a morphism from \(a\) to \(b\), we use the following notation:

\[ f: a \to b \]

The class of all morphisms from \(a\) to \(b\) is denoted in one of the following ways:

\[ \hom (a, b) \qquad \hom_{\mathcal{C}} (a, b) \qquad \mathop{\operatorname{mor}}(a,b) \qquad \mathcal{C}(a, b) \]

They satisfy the following conditions:

  • If \(f\) is a morphism from \(a\) to \(b\) and \(g\) is a