# What are the internal categories in an endofunctor category

Take a category $C$, and take all endofunctors of $C$, so the set $E= \{ M| M: C \rightarrow C \}$. $E$ forms the objects of a category with morphisms given by all natural transformations $\mu : M \rightarrow N$ for $M,N \in E$. Let $\mathcal{C}$ be the endofunctor category as defined. What are the internal categories in $\mathcal{C}$?

Further suppose $C$ is a symmetric monoidal dagger category, in this case, what are the internal categories in $\mathcal{C}$?

Edit: There has been some talk about adding structure to $[C,C]$. My original attempt to answer this question was based on this work. So, let us suppose $E$ has a monoidal structure given by functor compostion. What can we say then about $Cat[C,C]$. My last attempts to answer this question focused on functors that were exact. What if we restrict $[C,C]$ to the exact functors?

• Do you want $C$ to have finite limits (so it is cartesian together with $E$, and composition of internal categories as a map from the pullback of source versus target), or instead $E$ to be monoidal wrt composition (I bet internal monoids here are pretty strange animals)? – Fosco Jul 15 '18 at 7:36
• @FoscoLoregian: Internal monoids in $[C,C]$ w.r.t. composition are just monads on $C$ — very familiar and friendly animals! But yes, as you say, the poster needs to be clear about what sense of “internal categories” they mean: just the general one in any category with finite limits (in which case the answer is a bit boring)? or one of the more elaborate senses, defined in a category with extra structure, in which case they need to explicate what extra structure on $[C,C]$ they have in mind? – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine Jul 15 '18 at 8:31
• Another thing the OP might have in mind, I guess, is categories enriched in $[C,C]$ (with the composition monoidal structure). These would then be a fairly straightforward generalisation of monads — but it’d be interesting to see examples! – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine Jul 15 '18 at 8:42
• Of course I wanted to write "internal categories", but somehow overwritten it to "monoids" :-) – Fosco Jul 15 '18 at 8:53
• @FoscoLoregian: Ah, OK. But there again, there’s no standard definition of “internal categories in a monoidal category” (as far as I’m aware): you need to put some more elaborate structure on the ambient category, since internal categories need pullbacks not just products. – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine Jul 15 '18 at 13:49
