An inner automorphism is only an inner automorphism, but an inner endomorphism can be something strange

Abstract

The inner automorphisms of a group G can be characterized within the category of groups without reference to group elements: they are precisely those automorphisms of G that can be extended, in a functorial manner, to all groups H given with homomorphisms G --> H. Unlike the group of inner automorphisms of G itself, the group of such extended systems of automorphisms is always isomorphic to G. A similar characterization holds for inner automorphisms of an associative algebra R over a field K; here the group of functorial systems of automorphisms is isomorphic to the group of units of R modulo units of K. If one substitutes "endomorphism" for "automorphism" in these considerations, then in the group case, the only additional example is the trivial endomorphism; but in the K-algebra case, a construction unfamiliar to ring theorists, but known to functional analysts, also arises. Systems of endomorphisms with the same functoriality property are examined in some other categories; other uses of the phrase "inner endomorphism" in the literature, some overlapping the one introduced here, are noted; the concept of an inner {\em derivation} of an associative or Lie algebra is looked at from the same point of view, and the dual concept of a "co-inner" endomorphism is briefly examined. Several questions are posed.