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TheoremProved

The Yoneda embedding is fully faithful

Statement

The Yoneda embedding y:C↪[Cop,Set]y:\mathcal{C}\hookrightarrow[\mathcal{C}^{\mathrm{op}},\mathbf{Set}], y(A)=hAy(A)=h_A, is fully faithful: for every A,B∈CA,B\in\mathcal{C}, Nat(hA,hB)≅HomC(A,B)\mathrm{Nat}(h_A,h_B)\cong\mathrm{Hom}_{\mathcal{C}}(A,B), and this bijection sends a morphism f:A→Bf:A\to B to the natural transformation hA⇒hBh_A\Rightarrow h_B given by postcomposition with ff.

Why is it true?

Full faithfulness is exactly the guarantee that the translation A↦hAA\mapsto h_A loses no information whatsoever: distinct morphisms of C\mathcal{C} become distinct natural transformations, and every natural transformation between two representable presheaves comes from an actual morphism of C\mathcal{C}, which is what justifies studying objects purely through the maps into them.

Proof sketch

Apply the Yoneda lemma with the target functor set to F:=hBF:=h_B. The lemma gives a bijection Nat(hA,hB)≅hB(A)\mathrm{Nat}(h_A,h_B)\cong h_B(A), and unwinding the definition hB(A)=HomC(A,B)h_B(A)=\mathrm{Hom}_{\mathcal{C}}(A,B) gives exactly Nat(hA,hB)≅HomC(A,B)\mathrm{Nat}(h_A,h_B)\cong\mathrm{Hom}_{\mathcal{C}}(A,B).

It remains to identify what morphism of C\mathcal{C} a natural transformation η:hA⇒hB\eta:h_A\Rightarrow h_B corresponds to under this bijection, and to check it is postcomposition. By the formula for Φ\Phi, η\eta corresponds to the element Φ(η)=ηA(1A)∈Hom(A,B)\Phi(\eta)=\eta_A(1_A)\in\mathrm{Hom}(A,B); call this morphism ff.

Now use Ψ(Φ(η))=η\Psi(\Phi(\eta))=\eta (the theorem above, applied with F=hBF=h_B) to recover every component of η\eta from ff: for any object XX and any g∈hA(X)=Hom(X,A)g\in h_A(X)=\mathrm{Hom}(X,A), Ψ(f)X(g)=hB(g)(f)\Psi(f)_X(g)=h_B(g)(f). Unwinding the contravariant action of hBh_B on morphisms — precomposition — gives hB(g)(f)=f∘gh_B(g)(f)=f\circ g. So ηX(g)=f∘g\eta_X(g)=f\circ g: every component of η\eta is literally postcomposition with ff.

Because Φ\Phi and Ψ\Psi are mutually inverse bijections (proved above) and postcomposition with ff is exactly Ψ(f)\Psi(f), the assignment sending ff to postcomposition with ff is itself a bijection Hom(A,B)→Nat(hA,hB)\mathrm{Hom}(A,B)\to\mathrm{Nat}(h_A,h_B) — which is precisely the statement that yy is fully faithful.

Topics that use this theorem

Step-by-step proofs

No step-by-step proof yet for this theorem.

References

  1. Saunders Mac Lane (1998). Categories for the Working Mathematician
  2. Emily Riehl (2016). Category Theory in Context
  3. Jacob Lurie (2009). Higher Topos Theory · arXiv:math/0608040