6
$\begingroup$

It is a well-known result (by G. Tabuada, as I recall) that the category $\mathbf{dgcat}_k$ of (small) dg-categories over a fixed commutative ring $k$ admits a model category structure such that the weak equivalences are the quasi-equivalences. Then, necessarily, $\mathbf{dgcat}_k$ is small complete and cocomplete, in particular it admits pullbacks and pushouts. However, I could not find any description of them. Actually, I don't even know what should be the product (or coproduct) of two dg-categories, nor could I find any kind of reference.

Do you have any clue?

$\endgroup$

1 Answer 1

3
$\begingroup$

Small dg-categories are categories enriched over $\mathcal{V} = \textbf{Ch}(k)$, the category of chain complexes over a commutative ring $k$.

It is a general result that if $\mathcal{V}$ is (co)complete, then so is the category $\mathcal{V}\textbf{-Cat}$ of small $\mathcal{V}$-enriched categories. See the text around Corollaries 7.3.6 and 7.3.7 of Christina Vasilakopoulou's thesis for a sketch of the proof and other references of this fact.

This paper by Harvey Wolff proves that $\mathcal{V}\textbf{-Cat}$ is cocomplete by first showing that $\mathcal{V}\textbf{-Graph}$ is cocomplete ($\mathcal{V}$-graphs are just $\mathcal{V}$-categories without identities or composition). The construction for coproducts is easy enough, but things get quite involved when constructing coequalizers even for just $\mathcal{V}$-graphs.

In the remainder of this answer, I'll just show how to construct coproducts of $\mathcal{V}$-categories.

Let $\mathcal{C}_i, i \in I$ be a collection of $\mathcal{V}$-categories for some indexing set $I$. Form a $\mathcal{V}$-category $\mathcal{C}$ in the following manner:

  • $\text{Ob}(\mathcal{C}) := \coprod_{i \in I} \text{Ob}(\mathcal{C}_i)$
  • For $x,y \in \text{Ob}(\mathcal{C})$ where $x \in \text{Ob}(\mathcal{C}_i)$ and $y \in \text{Ob}(\mathcal{C}_j)$, define $\mathcal{C}(x,y)$ to be $\mathcal{C}_i(x,y)$ if $i = j$ and $0$ otherwise, where $0$ is the initial object of $\mathcal{V}$.
  • For $x,y,z \in \text{Ob}(\mathcal{C})$, we need to produce composition maps $$\mu_{x,y,z}\colon \mathcal{C}(x,y) \otimes \mathcal{C}(y,z) \to \mathcal{C}(x,z).$$ If $x,y,z$ are all from the same $\mathcal{C}_i$, then just use the composition maps from $\mathcal{C}_i$. Otherwise, at least one of $\mathcal{C}(x,y)$ and $\mathcal{y,z}$ is $0$. Since $0 \otimes X = X \otimes 0 = 0$ for any $X \in \mathcal{V}$, the domain of $\mu_{x,y,z}$ is $0$, so take $\mu_{x,y,z}$ to be the unique map $0 \to \mathcal{C}(x,z)$.

It's easy to check that composition as defined above is associative and unital.

$\endgroup$

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.