Questions tagged [duality]
Use for questions regarding duality of mathematical object, i.e. dual spaces, objects with two possible interpretations etc.
312 questions
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The concept of duality
I have been thinking for sometime about asking this question, but because I did not want to have two "big-list" questions open at the same time, I did not ask this one. Now its time has come....
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Why is there a duality between spaces and commutative algebras?
1) The category of affine varieties over $\mathbb{C}$ is equivalent to the opposite category of finitely generated reduced algebras over $\mathbb{C}$. The equivalence associates to an affine variety ...
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What are all the natural maps between iterated duals of vector spaces, and equations between these?
Fix a field. Given a vector space $V$ it has a dual $V^\ast$, which has its own dual $V^{\ast \ast}$, which has its own dual $V^{\ast \ast \ast}$, and so on ad infinitum.
There are lots of natural ...
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No canonical isomorphism [duplicate]
I thought that it would be interesting to collect into a big list various instances of isomorphic structures with no preferred isomorphism between them. I expect the examples to be interesting since ...
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Are there topological versions of the idea of divisor?
I am trying to extract a particular, more lightweight and more focussed at the same time, case of my recent question Which of the physics dualities are closest in essence to the Spanier-Whitehead ...
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If a $\otimes$-idempotent object has a dual, must it be self-dual?
Let $C$ be a symmetric monoidal category.
Recall that a dual for $X \in C$ is an object $X^\vee$ and maps $\eta: I \to X \otimes X^\vee$ and $\varepsilon: X^\vee \otimes X \to I$ (where $I$ is the ...
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Applications of linear programming duality in combinatorics
So, I know that one can apply the strong LP duality theorem to specific instances of maximum flow problems to recover some nontrivial theorems in combinatorics, such as Hall's theorem, Koenig's ...
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What would be an infinity-groupoid analogue of the duality between sets and complete atomic boolean algebras?
Consider the object classifier of the $\infty$-topos of $\infty$-groupoids. For the role it plays in homotopy type theory as the type of types, let’s denote it as $Type = \coprod_{[F]} B Aut(F)$, the ...
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Classification of rings satisfying $a^4=a$
We have the famous classification of rings satisfying $a^2=a$ (for each element $a$) in terms of Stone spaces, via $X \mapsto C(X,\mathbb{F}_2)$. Similarly, rings satisfying $a^3=a$ are classified by ...
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What categorical property of monoidal categories picks out the ones with duals?
Recall that a monoidal category $\mathcal C$ is rigid if every object $X\in \mathcal C$ has both left and right duals, i.e. objects $X^l$ and $X^r$ with maps $X^l \otimes X \to \mathbf 1 \to X \otimes ...
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What is a module over a Boolean ring?
Recall that a (unital) Boolean ring is a (unital) commutative ring $A$ where every element is idempotent; it follows that $A$ is of characteristic 2. There is an equivalence of categories between ...
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Which categories are the categories of models of a Lawvere theory?
Background: a Lawvere theory $T$ is a category with finite products such that each object is a power of a fixed object $x$. Given a Lawvere theory $T$, the category $\text{Mod}_T$ of models of $T$ is ...
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Questions about spectra of rings of continuous functions
I have been thinking a bit about rings of continuous functions of various kinds -- how they motivate the more modern notion of the Zariski topology on the prime spectrum as well as how they fit into a ...
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Are Spanier-Whitehead duals of general spaces expressible through some generalization of normal bundles?
The question is inspired by an answer to The concept of Duality
It is explained in that answer that the Spanier-Whitehead dual of a compact manifold is given by the Thom spectrum of normal bundles of ...
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Frobenius upper shriek/flat of a dualizing complex
Let $X$ be a separated connected scheme of characteristic $p > 0$. I am going to assume that $F : X \to X$ (the absolute Frobenius) is a finite map. This condition is called being $F$-finite.
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Duality between K-theory and K-homology in the non-spin^c case.
I posted this question on Math.SE (https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/409444/), but got no answer. So I repost it here.
Let M be a closed manifold. Then there is a cap product $K^\ast(M) \times ...
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Examples for "nice" Boolean algebras that are not complete or not atomic
A Boolean algebra may, or may not, be complete (i.e, any set of elements has a sup and an inf) or atomic (i.e., every element is a sup of some set of atoms).
Boolean Algebras that are complete as ...
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Is there any relationship between the topologies of the clique complex and the independence complex?
Let $G$ be a simple graph on a finite vertex set. The clique complex $X(G)$ is the simplicial complex whose faces are complete subgraphs of $G$, and the independence complex $I(G)$ is the simplicial ...
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GOE/GSE duality and Bott periodicity
Many papers in random matrix theory make passing references to duality between eigenvalue statistics of the GOE and GSE, for which the most concrete reference I can find is https://arxiv.org/pdf/math-...
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Gabriel-Ulmer duality for $\infty$-categories
Gabriel-Ulmer duality states that 2-categories $\mathrm{Lex}$ (of small finitely complete categories and functors preserving finite limits) and $\mathrm{LFP}$ (of locally finitely presentable ...
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Reference request for a complete and formal Duality Principle in category theory
Most textbooks on category theory only sketch the meaning of the Duality Principle. But even when they do it more formally, I have only seen a version so far which concerns the language of a (single) ...
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Description of $\big(\ell^\infty(\mathbb N)\big)^{\!*}$ via ultrafilters
Let $\beta\mathbb N$ is the set of ultrafilters on $\mathbb N$ and $\mathscr F\in\beta\mathbb N$. Assume that $l_{\mathscr F}\in\big(\ell^\infty(\mathbb N)\big)^{\!*}$ is the functional which assigns ...
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Does Poincaré duality preserve algebraic cycles?
Let $X$ be a smooth, projective (complex) variety of dimension $n$ and $Z \subset X$ be a subvariety of codimension $k$ (if necessary assume $Z$ is non-singular). We know the cohomology class $[Z]$ of ...
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Uniqueness of dualizing objects
One definition of (symmetric) star-autonomous category is as a closed symmetric monoidal category $(C,\otimes,I,\multimap)$ equipped with an object $\bot$ such that all double-dualization maps $A \to (...
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Looking for concrete description of a category derived from abelian groups
The category of abelian groups $\mathsf{Ab}$ is the $\mathcal{Ind}$-completion of the full subcategory of finitely presentable abelian groups $\mathsf{Ab}_{fp}$. This is not so special, since the ...
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Closed embeddings of monoidal categories in *-autonomous ones
It's often very convenient for objects in a monoidal category to have duals. Hence, it's natural to wonder whether an arbitrary monoidal category can be embedded in one where all objects have duals. ...
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Reference for free symmetric monoidal categories with duals on symmetric monoidal categories
The inclusion $U$ of the (2,1)-category of symmetric monoidal categories with duals into the (2,1)-category of symmetric monoidal categories admits a left 2-adjoint functor $L$ for formal reasons.
In ...
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Why the circle for Pontryagin duality? [duplicate]
For a locally compact group $G$, we define the Pontryagin dual as $\hat G = Hom(G,\mathbb T)$ where $\mathbb T$ is the circle group and the homomorphisms are continuous group maps. This duality has a ...
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What do you call $C$ if $[D,C] = D^\vee \otimes C$ for all $D$?
This is different from $C$ being dualizable ($[C,D] = C^\vee \otimes D$). (EDIT: It turns out to be the same -- see Mike Shulman's answer!) But for example, if $C$ is a locally free sheaf of finite ...
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Elementary proof of a triangular grid lemma
I am looking for an elementary proof of the following lemma, which concerns what Green and Tao call "triangular grids" (see arXiv:1208.4714).
Let $a_1$, $a_2$, $a_3$, $a_4$, $b_1$, $b_2$ be six ...
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Duality between large and small scale structures
A rather immediate reaction to seeing the definition of a coarse structure, at least to me, is to be reminded of a uniform structure. The axioms for a coarse structure $\mathcal{C}$ (defined by a ...
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Self-dual plane curves
Suppose that $C\subset \mathbb P^2$ is a plane projective curve (base field is $\mathbb C$) and $C^*\subset (\mathbb P^2)^*$ is its dual. What are the known examples in which $C$ is projectively (i.e.,...
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Dual cell structures on manifolds
Suppose that $M$ is a compact manifold without boundary (smooth if you like), and suppose further that $M$ is equipped with a regular CW-complex structure. Denote the face poset of this CW-complex by $...
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Characterization of schemes whose dualizing complex is perfect
I'm wondering if there is a characterization of schemes over a a field $k$ whose dualizing complex is a perfect complex in terms of singularities. E.g. on a proper Cohen-Macauley scheme over a field, ...
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Finite domination and Poincaré duality spaces
Here are some definitions:
A space is homotopy finite if it is homotopy equivalent to a finite CW complex.
A space finitely dominated if it is a retract of a homotopy finite space.
A space $X$ is a ...
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Dual space of continuous Banach-space-valued functions
Let $X$ be a Banach space and $K$ some compact Hausdorff space. I am interested in the dual space of the Banach space
$$C(K; X) = \lbrace f: K \to X, \ f \text{ is continuous}\rbrace, \qquad \lVert ...
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Isbell Duality and Dualizing Scheme Objects
I'm not sure if this question is too elementary for MO; nevertheless, I have seen many helpful discussions surrounding this topic here. I'm interested in studying the adjunction $\operatorname{Spec}\...
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Characterizing the Dual of $W_0^{s,p}$
I am interested in literature/results characterizing the dual of the fractional Sobolev space $W^{s,p}(\Omega)$, where $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^N$ is open, bounded, and smooth, $0< s<1$, and $...
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Isbell duality between algebras and sheaves
nLab says on Isbell duality, the following:
A general abstract adjunction
$(\mathcal{O} \dashv \operatorname{Spec}) : \mathrm{CoPresheaves} \leftrightarrows \mathrm{Presheaves}$
relates (higher) ...
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Dimensions of dual vector spaces
Let $V_F$ be an infinite dimensional right $F$-vector space (over a field $F$, or even over a division ring). The dual space $V^{\ast}={\rm Hom}(V,F)$ is naturally a left $F$-vector space (coming ...
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Are there centrally-symmetric self-dual polytopes in dimension $d> 4$?
A convex polytope $P\subset\Bbb R^d$ is centrally symmetric if $-P=P$. It is self-dual (or better, self-polar?) if its polar dual $P^\circ$ is congruent to $P$, that is, there is a map $X\in\mathrm O(\...
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Grothendieck-Verdier duality without the noetherian condition
The Grothendieck-Verdier duality:
$$
Rf_*\big(R\mathcal{H}\textit{om}_X^\bullet(\mathcal{E}^\bullet,f^!\mathcal{F}^\bullet)\big) \cong R\mathcal{H}\textit{om}^\bullet_Y(Rf_*\mathcal{E}^\bullet,\...
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Topological problems solved by lattice duality
It is well known the success of lattice dualities (as Pontryagin duality for abelian groups, Stone duality for Boolean algebras and Priestley duality for distributive lattices) to solve algebraic ...
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Divided power algebra is artinian as a module over the polynomial ring
I already asked this on math.stackexchange.com, but did not receive much responses. I hope this is also appropriate for mathoverflow.
In the paper Homological algebra on a complete intersection, with ...
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Origin and context of adjunctions inducing equivalences between full subcategories
The following is well-known.
Theorem. Let $F\dashv U$ be a pair of adjoint functors
$$F\colon \mathcal C\to \mathcal D, \qquad U\colon \mathcal D\to\mathcal C$$
with unit $(\eta_A\colon A\to U(F(A)))_{...
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Point-free topology, but with $\sigma$-algebras instead of spaces
I have a question about $\sigma$-algebras in relation to point-free topology. The question was inspired by a comment on a similar question I had:
If abstract $\sigma$-algebras (i.e. certain boolean ...
user30211
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Twisted duality in a symmetric monoidal category
I would like to know if the following definition is already known or even well-known. Is there a reference in the literature? Do you know prominent examples?
Definition. Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a ...
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Why are possibility and necessity dual?
Hello,
Recently, I'm studying modal logic for my master's thesis, and my research background is category theory.
So, I naturally have a question that why it is said that necessity (box) and ...
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Why aren‘t op and co switched?
When reading through Loregian and Riehl - Categorical notions of fibration, on p. 3 there is a remark that confuses me about notation. Given a $2$-category $\mathcal C$ one usually defines $\mathcal C^...
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On the Euler characteristic of a Poincaré duality space
Background. Suppose that $M$ is an oriented, connected, closed manifold of dimension $d$ with fundamental class $\mu \in H_d(M;\Bbb Z)$. Let $\Delta : M \to M \times M$ be the diagonal map. Then the ...
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