Abstract. The aim of this paper is to solve a problem proposed by Dominique Bourn: to provide a categorical-algebraic characterisation of groups amongst monoids and of rings amongst semirings. In the case of monoids, our solution is given by the following equivalent conditions:(i) G is a group; (ii) G is a Mal'tsev object, i.e., the category Pt G pMonq of points over G in the category of monoids is unital; (iii) G is a protomodular object, i.e., all points over G are stably strong, which means that any pullback of such a point along a morphism of monoids Y Ñ G determines a split extensionin which k and s are jointly strongly epimorphic. We similarly characterise rings in the category of semirings.On the way we develop a local or object-wise approach to certain important conditions occurring in categorical algebra. This leads to a basic theory involving what we call unital and strongly unital objects, subtractive objects, Mal'tsev objects and protomodular objects. We explore some of the connections between these new notions and give examples and counterexamples.
A new method for realizing the first and second order cohomology groups of an internal abelian group in a Barr-exact category was introduced by Bourn (Cahiers Topologie Géom Différentielle Catég XL:297-316, 1999; J Pure Appl Algebra 168: [133][134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142][143][144][145][146] 2002). The main role, in each level, is played by a direction functor. This approach can be generalized to any level n and produces a long exact cohomology sequence. By applying this method to Moore categories we show that they represent a good context for non-abelian cohomology, in particular for the Baer Extension Theory.
Abstract. We establish a Galois-theoretic interpretation of cohomology in semi-abelian categories: cohomology with trivial coefficients classifies central extensions, also in arbitrarily high degrees. This allows us to obtain a duality, in a certain sense, between "internal" homology and "external" cohomology in semi-abelian categories. These results depend on a geometric viewpoint of the concept of a higher central extension, as well as the algebraic one in terms of commutators.
We present a new characterisation of Goursat categories in terms of special kind of pushouts, that we call Goursat pushouts. This allows one to prove that, for a regular category, the Goursat property is actually equivalent to the validity of the denormalised 3-by-3 Lemma. Goursat pushouts are also useful to clarify, from a categorical perspective, the existence of the quaternary operations characterising 3-permutable varieties.
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