On pure monomorphisms and pure epimorphisms in accessible categories

Leonid Positselski

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arXiv · 2506.13374

On pure monomorphisms and pure epimorphisms in accessible categories

Leonid Positselski

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Abstract

In all $κ$-accessible additive categories, $κ$-pure monomorphisms and $κ$-pure epimorphisms are well-behaved, as shown in our previous paper arXiv:2311.02418. This is known to be not always true in $κ$-accessible nonadditive categories. Nevertheless, mild assumptions on a $κ$-accessible category are sufficient to prove good properties of $κ$-pure monomorphisms and $κ$-pure epimorphisms. In particular, in a $κ$-accessible category with finite products, all $κ$-pure monomorphisms are $κ$-directed colimits of split monomorphisms, while in a $κ$-accessible category with finite coproducts, all $κ$-pure epimorphisms are $κ$-directed colimits of split epimorphisms. We also discuss what we call Quillen exact classes of monomorphisms and epimorphisms, generalizing the additive concept of one-sided exact category.

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Leonid Positselski. 2026-01-29. On pure monomorphisms and pure epimorphisms in accessible categories. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.13374

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