Coherence condition

Short description: Collection of conditions requiring that various compositions of elementary morphisms are equal

In mathematics, and particularly category theory, a coherence condition is a collection of conditions requiring that various compositions of elementary morphisms are equal. Typically the elementary morphisms are part of the data of the category. A coherence theorem states that, in order to be assured that all these equalities hold, it suffices to check a small number of identities.

An illustrative example: a monoidal category

Part of the data of a monoidal category is a chosen morphism [math]\displaystyle{ \alpha_{A,B,C} }[/math], called the associator:

[math]\displaystyle{ \alpha_{A,B,C} \colon (A\otimes B)\otimes C \rightarrow A\otimes(B\otimes C) }[/math]

for each triple of objects [math]\displaystyle{ A, B, C }[/math] in the category. Using compositions of these [math]\displaystyle{ \alpha_{A,B,C} }[/math], one can construct a morphism

[math]\displaystyle{ ( ( A_N \otimes A_{N-1} ) \otimes A_{N-2} ) \otimes \cdots \otimes A_1) \rightarrow ( A_N \otimes ( A_{N-1} \otimes \cdots \otimes ( A_2 \otimes A_1) ). }[/math]

Actually, there are many ways to construct such a morphism as a composition of various [math]\displaystyle{ \alpha_{A,B,C} }[/math]. One coherence condition that is typically imposed is that these compositions are all equal.

Typically one proves a coherence condition using a coherence theorem, which states that one only needs to check a few equalities of compositions in order to show that the rest also hold. In the above example, one only needs to check that, for all quadruples of objects [math]\displaystyle{ A,B,C,D }[/math], the following diagram commutes.

Any pair of morphisms from [math]\displaystyle{ ( ( \cdots ( A_N \otimes A_{N-1} ) \otimes \cdots ) \otimes A_2 ) \otimes A_1) }[/math] to [math]\displaystyle{ ( A_N \otimes ( A_{N-1} \otimes ( \cdots \otimes ( A_2 \otimes A_1) \cdots ) ) }[/math] constructed as compositions of various [math]\displaystyle{ \alpha_{A,B,C} }[/math] are equal.

Further examples

Two simple examples that illustrate the definition are as follows. Both are directly from the definition of a category.

Identity

Let f : A → B be a morphism of a category containing two objects A and B. Associated with these objects are the identity morphisms 1_A : A → A and 1_B : B → B. By composing these with f, we construct two morphisms:

f o 1_A : A → B, and

1_B o f : A → B.

Both are morphisms between the same objects as f. We have, accordingly, the following coherence statement:

f o 1_A = f  = 1_B o f.

Associativity of composition

Let f : A → B, g : B → C and h : C → D be morphisms of a category containing objects A, B, C and D. By repeated composition, we can construct a morphism from A to D in two ways:

(h o g) o f : A → D, and

h o (g o f) : A → D.

We have now the following coherence statement:

(h o g) o f = h o (g o f).

In these two particular examples, the coherence statements are theorems for the case of an abstract category, since they follow directly from the axioms; in fact, they are axioms. For the case of a concrete mathematical structure, they can be viewed as conditions, namely as requirements for the mathematical structure under consideration to be a concrete category, requirements that such a structure may meet or fail to meet.

References

• Mac Lane, Saunders (1971). "7. Monoids §2 Coherence". Categories for the working mathematician. Graduate texts in mathematics. 4. Springer. pp. 161–165. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-9839-7_8. ISBN 9781461298397. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4612-9839-7_8.