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TheoremProved

Terminal objects are unique up to unique isomorphism

Statement

If T1T_1 and T2T_2 are both terminal objects of C\mathcal{C} (there is exactly one morphism from every object into each of them), then T1≅T2T_1 \cong T_2: there is an isomorphism between them, and it is the only morphism T1→T2T_1 \to T_2. The dual statement holds for initial objects, and hence for products by the same argument applied to the category of candidate cones.

Why is it true?

Without this fact, "the" terminal object or "the" product would not be well-defined — different constructions of a product (say, ordered pairs vs. some other encoding) need to be interchangeable, and uniqueness up to unique isomorphism is exactly the precise sense in which they are "the same".

Proof sketch

Since T2T_2 is terminal, every object — in particular T1T_1 — has exactly one morphism into it; call it u:T1→T2u : T_1 \to T_2. Since T1T_1 is terminal, symmetrically there is exactly one v:T2→T1v : T_2 \to T_1.

Consider the composite v∘u:T1→T1v \circ u : T_1 \to T_1. Because T1T_1 is terminal, there is exactly one morphism T1→T1T_1 \to T_1, and 1T11_{T_1} is one such morphism; since v∘uv \circ u is also a morphism T1→T1T_1 \to T_1, uniqueness forces v∘u=1T1v \circ u = 1_{T_1}.

By the symmetric argument using the terminality of T2T_2, the composite u∘v:T2→T2u \circ v : T_2 \to T_2 must equal 1T21_{T_2}: u∘v=1T2u \circ v = 1_{T_2}.

A morphism with a two-sided inverse is by definition an isomorphism, so uu is an isomorphism T1≅T2T_1 \cong T_2 with inverse vv. It is the unique morphism T1→T2T_1 \to T_2 because terminality of T2T_2 already says there is only one such morphism at all — uu was forced from the start, and it simply turned out to be invertible.

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. David I. Spivak (2012). Functorial Data Migration · arXiv:1009.1166