A functor $F\colon \mathcal{C}\to \mathcal{D}$ is essentially injective if it satisfies the following condition:
- (★) For each $A,B\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathcal{C})$, if $F(A)\cong F(B)$, then $A\cong B$.
Let $\mathcal{C}$ and $\mathcal{D}$ be categories.
A functor $F\colon \mathcal{C}\to \mathcal{D}$ is essentially injective if it satisfies the following condition:
Is there a characterisation of functors $F\colon \mathcal{C}\to \mathcal{D}$ such that:
For each $\mathcal{X}\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathsf{Cats})$, the precomposition functor
is essentially injective, i.e. if $\phi \circ F\cong \psi \circ F$, then $\phi \cong \psi $ for all functors $\phi $ and $\psi $?
For each $\mathcal{X}\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathsf{Cats})$, the postcomposition functor
is essentially injective, i.e. if $F\circ \phi \cong F\circ \psi $, then $\phi \cong \psi $?
This question also appears as [Emily, Characterisations of functors $F$ such that $F^*$ or $F_*$ is [property], e.g. faithful, conservative, etc].