Semigroupoid

From HandWiki

In mathematics, a semigroupoid (also called semicategory, naked category or precategory) is a partial algebra that satisfies the axioms for a small[1][2][3] category, except possibly for the requirement that there be an identity at each object. While this definition is due to Tilson, Exel has introduced a different definition, one in which there is no underlying graph.[4] The term semicategory usually refers to a Tilson's graphed semigroupoid. Semigroupoids generalise semigroups in the same way that small categories generalise monoids and groupoids generalise groups. Semigroupoids have applications in the structural theory of semigroups.

Formally, a semigroupoid consists of:

  • a set of things called objects.
  • for every two objects A and B a set Mor(A,B) of things called morphisms from A to B. If f is in Mor(A,B), we write f : A → B.
  • for every three objects A, B and C a binary operation Mor(A,B) × Mor(B,C) → Mor(A,C) called composition of morphisms. The composition of f : A → B and g : B → C is written as g ∘ f or gf. (Some authors write it as fg.)

such that the following axiom holds:

  • (associativity) if f : A → B, g : B → C and h : C → D then h ∘ (g ∘ f) = (h ∘ g) ∘ f.

Examples

  • Yoneda lemma does not hold in general for semicategories.

References

  1. ↑ Tilson, Bret (1987). "Categories as algebra: an essential ingredient in the theory of monoids". J. Pure Appl. Algebra 48 (1-2): 83–198. doi:10.1016/0022-4049(87)90108-3. , Appendix B
  2. ↑ Rhodes, John; Steinberg, Ben (2009), The q-Theory of Finite Semigroups, Springer, p. 26, ISBN 9780387097817 
  3. ↑ See e.g. Gomes, Gracinda M. S. (2002), Semigroups, Algorithms, Automata and Languages, World Scientific, p. 41, ISBN 9789812776884, https://books.google.com/books?id=IL58mAsfXOgC&pg=PA41 , which requires the objects of a semigroupoid to form a set.
  4. ↑ Exel, R. (May 2011). "Semigroupoid C ⁎ -algebras". Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications 377 (1): 303–318. doi:10.1016/j.jmaa.2010.10.061.