module Cat.Instances.Sets where
The category of Sets🔗
We prove that the category of Sets is univalent. Recall that this means
that, fixing a set
the type
is contractible. We first exhibit a contraction directly, using ua, and then provide an alternative proof
in terms of univalence for
.
Direct proof🔗
The direct proof is surprisingly straightforward, in particular
because the heavy lifting is done by a plethora of existing lemmas:
Iso→Equiv to turn an
isomorphism into an equivalence, path→ua-pathp to reduce
dependent paths over ua to
non-dependent paths, ≅-pathp to
characterise dependent paths in _≅_,
etc.
module _ {ℓ} where import Cat.Reasoning (Sets ℓ) as Sets
We must first rearrange _≅_
to _≃_,
for which we can use Iso→Equiv.
We must then show that an isomorphism in the category of Sets is the
same thing as an isomorphism of types; But the only difference between
these types can be patched by happly/funext.
iso→equiv : {A B : Set ℓ} → A Sets.≅ B → ∣ A ∣ ≃ ∣ B ∣ iso→equiv x .fst = x .Sets.to iso→equiv x .snd = is-iso→is-equiv $ iso x.from (happly x.invl) (happly x.invr) where module x = Sets._≅_ x
is-invertible→is-equiv : {A B : Set ℓ} {f : ∣ A ∣ → ∣ B ∣} → Sets.is-invertible {A} {B} f → is-equiv f is-invertible→is-equiv x = is-iso→is-equiv $ iso x.inv (happly x.invl) (happly x.invr) where module x = Sets.is-invertible x is-equiv→is-invertible : {A B : Set ℓ} {f : ∣ A ∣ → ∣ B ∣} → is-equiv f → Sets.is-invertible {A} {B} f is-equiv→is-invertible f-eqv = Sets.make-invertible (equiv→inverse f-eqv) (funext (equiv→counit f-eqv)) (funext (equiv→unit f-eqv))
Using univalence for function extensionality and the computation rule for univalence, it is almost trivial to show that categorical isomorphisms of sets are an identity system.
Sets-is-category : is-category (Sets ℓ) Sets-is-category .to-path i = n-ua (iso→equiv i) Sets-is-category .to-path-over p = Sets.≅-pathp refl _ $ funextP λ a → path→ua-pathp _ refl
Indirect proof🔗
While the proof above is fairly simple, we can give a
different formulation, which might be more intuitive. Let’s start by
showing that the rearrangement iso→equiv is an
equivalence:
equiv→iso : {A B : Set ℓ} → ∣ A ∣ ≃ ∣ B ∣ → A Sets.≅ B equiv→iso (f , f-eqv) = Sets.make-iso f (equiv→inverse f-eqv) (funext (equiv→counit f-eqv)) (funext (equiv→unit f-eqv)) equiv≃iso : {A B : Set ℓ} → (A Sets.≅ B) ≃ (∣ A ∣ ≃ ∣ B ∣) equiv≃iso {A} {B} = Iso→Equiv (iso→equiv , iso equiv→iso p q) where p : is-right-inverse (equiv→iso {A} {B}) iso→equiv p x = trivial! q : is-left-inverse (equiv→iso {A} {B}) iso→equiv q x = trivial!
We then use univalence for to directly establish that
is-category'-Sets : ∀ {A B : Set ℓ} → (A ≡ B) ≃ (A Sets.≅ B) is-category'-Sets {A} {B} = (A ≡ B) ≃⟨ n-univalence e⁻¹ ⟩≃ (∣ A ∣ ≃ ∣ B ∣) ≃⟨ equiv≃iso e⁻¹ ⟩≃ (A Sets.≅ B) ≃∎
Sets^op is also a category🔗
import Cat.Reasoning (Sets ℓ ^op) as Sets^op
First we show that isomorphism is invariant under ^op.
iso-op-invariant : ∀ {A B : Set ℓ} → (A Sets^op.≅ B) ≃ (A Sets.≅ B) iso-op-invariant {A} {B} = Iso→Equiv the-iso where open import Cat.Morphism open Inverses the-iso : Iso (A Sets^op.≅ B) (A Sets.≅ B) the-iso .fst i .to = i .from the-iso .fst i .from = i .to the-iso .fst i .inverses .invl = i .invl the-iso .fst i .inverses .invr = i .invr the-iso .snd .is-iso.from i .to = i .from the-iso .snd .is-iso.from i .from = i .to the-iso .snd .is-iso.from i .inverses .invl = i .invl the-iso .snd .is-iso.from i .inverses .invr = i .invr the-iso .snd .is-iso.rinv _ = refl the-iso .snd .is-iso.linv _ = refl
This fact lets us re-use the to-path component of Sets-is-category. Some
calculation gives us to-path-over.
Sets^op-is-category : is-category (Sets ℓ ^op) Sets^op-is-category .to-path = Sets-is-category .to-path ⊙ iso-op-invariant .fst Sets^op-is-category .to-path-over {a} {b} p = Sets^op.≅-pathp refl _ $ ua→ λ a → sym (p.invr $ₚ a) where module p = Sets^op._≅_ p