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Ivan Di Liberti
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Let me ignore any ambitious statement and say that your abelian category $\mathsf{A}$ has a projective generator $p$, this means that $p$ is projective and separates arrows.

Notice that the $p$-points $\mathsf{A}(p,a)$ of an object $a \in \mathsf{A}$ admit a structure of $\mathsf{End}(p)$-module via the multiplication $\phi \cdot c = c \circ \phi.$

Now the representable functor $\mathsf{A}(p,-): \mathsf{A} \to \mathsf{End}(p)\text{-}\mathsf{Mod}$ is faithful (because $p$ is a generator) and exact (because $p$ is projective), as desired.

When $\mathsf{A}$ is the category of abelian groups and $p$ are the integers, this recipe produces the identity functor on abelian groups.

You might be disappointed because I assumed that there is a $1$-object generator, while very often we deal with a family of generators, to take care this problem, notice that when $\{p_i\}_{i \in I }$ is a generator, the object $\prod_{i \in I} p_i$ is a generator, and if $\mathsf{A}$ has enough projectives, its projective cover $Q \twoheadrightarrow \prod_{i \in I} p_i$ is a generator too and is projective. As a result if your abelian category has enogh projectives and products, one can reduce any family of generators to a projective generator.

Cor. Let $\mathsf{A}$ be a complete abelian category with enough projectives and a generator $\{p_i\}_{i \in I }$, then there is a faithful and exact functor in the category of modules over the endomorphism ring of the projective cover of the product of the objects in the generator.

Let me ignore any ambitious statement and say that your abelian category $\mathsf{A}$ has a projective generator $p$, this means that $p$ is projective and separates arrows.

Notice that the $p$-points $\mathsf{A}(p,a)$ of an object $a \in \mathsf{A}$ admit a structure of $\mathsf{End}(p)$-module via the multiplication $\phi \cdot c = c \circ \phi.$

Now the representable functor $\mathsf{A}(p,-): \mathsf{A} \to \mathsf{End}(p)\text{-}\mathsf{Mod}$ is faithful (because $p$ is a generator) and exact (because $p$ is projective), as desired.

When $\mathsf{A}$ is the category of abelian groups and $p$ are the integers, this recipe produces the identity functor on abelian groups.

You might be disappointed because I assumed that there is a $1$-object generator, while very often we deal with a family of generators, to take care this problem, notice that when $\{p_i\}_{i \in I }$ is a generator, the object $\prod_{i \in I} p_i$ is a generator, and if $\mathsf{A}$ has enough projectives, its projective cover $Q \twoheadrightarrow \prod_{i \in I} p_i$ is a generator too and is projective. As a result if your abelian category has enogh projectives and products, one can reduce any family of generators to a projective generator.

Let me ignore any ambitious statement and say that your abelian category $\mathsf{A}$ has a projective generator $p$, this means that $p$ is projective and separates arrows.

Notice that the $p$-points $\mathsf{A}(p,a)$ of an object $a \in \mathsf{A}$ admit a structure of $\mathsf{End}(p)$-module via the multiplication $\phi \cdot c = c \circ \phi.$

Now the representable functor $\mathsf{A}(p,-): \mathsf{A} \to \mathsf{End}(p)\text{-}\mathsf{Mod}$ is faithful (because $p$ is a generator) and exact (because $p$ is projective), as desired.

When $\mathsf{A}$ is the category of abelian groups and $p$ are the integers, this recipe produces the identity functor on abelian groups.

You might be disappointed because I assumed that there is a $1$-object generator, while very often we deal with a family of generators, to take care this problem, notice that when $\{p_i\}_{i \in I }$ is a generator, the object $\prod_{i \in I} p_i$ is a generator, and if $\mathsf{A}$ has enough projectives, its projective cover $Q \twoheadrightarrow \prod_{i \in I} p_i$ is a generator too and is projective. As a result if your abelian category has enogh projectives and products, one can reduce any family of generators to a projective generator.

Cor. Let $\mathsf{A}$ be a complete abelian category with enough projectives and a generator $\{p_i\}_{i \in I }$, then there is a faithful and exact functor in the category of modules over the endomorphism ring of the projective cover of the product of the objects in the generator.

Source Link
Ivan Di Liberti
  • 9.1k
  • 1
  • 27
  • 66

Let me ignore any ambitious statement and say that your abelian category $\mathsf{A}$ has a projective generator $p$, this means that $p$ is projective and separates arrows.

Notice that the $p$-points $\mathsf{A}(p,a)$ of an object $a \in \mathsf{A}$ admit a structure of $\mathsf{End}(p)$-module via the multiplication $\phi \cdot c = c \circ \phi.$

Now the representable functor $\mathsf{A}(p,-): \mathsf{A} \to \mathsf{End}(p)\text{-}\mathsf{Mod}$ is faithful (because $p$ is a generator) and exact (because $p$ is projective), as desired.

When $\mathsf{A}$ is the category of abelian groups and $p$ are the integers, this recipe produces the identity functor on abelian groups.

You might be disappointed because I assumed that there is a $1$-object generator, while very often we deal with a family of generators, to take care this problem, notice that when $\{p_i\}_{i \in I }$ is a generator, the object $\prod_{i \in I} p_i$ is a generator, and if $\mathsf{A}$ has enough projectives, its projective cover $Q \twoheadrightarrow \prod_{i \in I} p_i$ is a generator too and is projective. As a result if your abelian category has enogh projectives and products, one can reduce any family of generators to a projective generator.