14.1.3 Representably Fully Faithful Morphisms

    Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a bicategory.

    A $1$-morphism $f\colon A\to B$ of $\mathcal{C}$ is representably fully faithful1 if the following equivalent conditions are satisfied:

    1. 1.

      The $1$-morphism $f$ is representably faithful (Definition 14.1.1.1.1) and representably full (Definition 14.1.2.1.1).

  • 2.

    For each $X\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathcal{C})$, the functor

    \[ f_{*}\colon \mathsf{Hom}_{\mathcal{C}}(X,A)\to \mathsf{Hom}_{\mathcal{C}}(X,B) \]

    given by postcomposition by $f$ is fully faithful.


    1. 1Further Terminology: Also called simply a fully faithful morphism, based on Item 1 of Example 14.1.3.1.3.

    In detail, $f$ is representably fully faithful if the conditions in Remark 14.1.1.1.2 and Remark 14.1.2.1.2 hold:

    1. 1.

      For all diagrams in $\mathcal{C}$ of the form

      if we have

      \[ \operatorname {\mathrm{id}}_{f}\mathbin {\star }\alpha =\operatorname {\mathrm{id}}_{f}\mathbin {\star }\beta , \]

      then $\alpha =\beta $.

    2. 2.

      For each $X\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathcal{C})$ and each $2$-morphism

      of $\mathcal{C}$, there exists a $2$-morphism
      of $\mathcal{C}$ such that we have an equality
      of pasting diagrams in $\mathcal{C}$, i.e. such that we have

      \[ \beta =\operatorname {\mathrm{id}}_{f}\mathbin {\star }\alpha . \]

    Here are some examples of representably fully faithful morphisms.

    1. 1.

      Representably Fully Faithful Morphisms in $\mathsf{Cats}_{\mathsf{2}}$. The representably fully faithful morphisms in $\mathsf{Cats}_{\mathsf{2}}$ are precisely the fully faithful functors; see Chapter 11: Categories, Item 6 of Proposition 11.6.3.1.2.

    2. 2.

      Representably Fully Faithful Morphisms in $\boldsymbol {\mathsf{Rel}}$. The representably fully faithful morphisms of $\boldsymbol {\mathsf{Rel}}$ coincide (Chapter 8: Relations, Unresolved reference of Unresolved reference) with the representably full morphisms in $\boldsymbol {\mathsf{Rel}}$, which are characterised in Chapter 8: Relations, Unresolved reference of Unresolved reference.


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