12.1.4 The Yoneda Embedding

The Yoneda embedding of $\mathcal{C}$1 is the functor2

\[ {\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}}\colon \mathcal{C}\hookrightarrow \mathsf{PSh}(\mathcal{C}) \]

where

  • Action on Objects. For each $A\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathcal{C})$, we have

    \[ {\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}}(A) \mathrel {\smash {\overset {\mathclap {\scriptscriptstyle \text{def}}}=}}h_{A}. \]
  • Action on Morphisms. For each $A,B\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathcal{C})$, the action on morphisms

    \[ {\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}|A,B}\colon \operatorname {\mathrm{Hom}}_{\mathcal{C}}(A,B)\to \operatorname {\mathrm{Nat}}(h_{A},h_{B}) \]

    of ${\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}}$ at $(A,B)$ is given by

    \[ {\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}|A,B}(f)\mathrel {\smash {\overset {\mathclap {\scriptscriptstyle \text{def}}}=}}h_{f} \]

    for each $f\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Hom}}_{\mathcal{C}}(A,B)$, where $h_{f}$ is the representable natural transformation associated to $f$ of Definition 12.1.3.1.1.


  1. 1Further Terminology: Also called the covariant Yoneda embedding to distinguish it from the contravariant Yoneda embedding of Theorem 12.2.5.1.1.
  2. 2Further Notation: Also written $h_{(-)}$, or simply ${\text{よ}}$.

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

  1. 1.

    Fully Faithfulness. The Yoneda embedding

    \[ {\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}}\colon \mathcal{C}\hookrightarrow \mathsf{PSh}(\mathcal{C}) \]

    is fully faithful.

  2. 2.

    Preservation and Reflection of Isomorphisms. The Yoneda embedding

    \[ {\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}}\colon \mathcal{C}\hookrightarrow \mathsf{PSh}(\mathcal{C}) \]

    preserves and reflects isomorphisms, i.e. given $A,B\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathcal{C})$, the following conditions are equivalent:

    1. (a)

      We have $A\cong B$.

    2. (b)

      We have $h_{A}\cong h_{B}$.

  3. 3.

    Density. The Yoneda embedding

    \[ {\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}}\colon \mathcal{C}\hookrightarrow \mathsf{PSh}(\mathcal{C}) \]

    is dense.

  4. 4.

    Interaction With Density Comonads. We have

  5. 5.

    Interaction With Codensity Monads. We have

    \[ \operatorname {\mathrm{Ran}}_{{\text{よ}}}({\text{よ}})\cong \mathsf{Spec}\circ \mathsf{O}, \]

    where $\mathsf{Spec}$ and $\mathsf{O}$ are the functors of Unresolved reference.

Item 1: Fully Faithfulness
Let $A,B\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathcal{C})$. Applying the Yoneda lemma (Theorem 12.1.5.1.1) to the functor $h_{B}$ (i.e. in the case $\mathcal{F}=h_{B}$), we have

\[ \operatorname {\mathrm{Hom}}_{\mathcal{C}}(A,B)\cong \operatorname {\mathrm{Nat}}(h_{A},h_{B}), \]

and the natural isomorphism

\[ \xi _{A,B}\colon \mathcal{h}_{B}(A)\Rightarrow \operatorname {\mathrm{Nat}}(h_{A},h_{B}) \]

witnessing this bijection is given by

\begin{align*} \xi _{A,B}(g)_{X} & \mathrel {\smash {\overset {\mathclap {\scriptscriptstyle \text{def}}}=}}h^{X}_{g}\\ & \mathrel {\smash {\overset {\mathclap {\scriptscriptstyle \text{def}}}=}}g_{*} \end{align*}

for each $X\in \operatorname {\mathrm{Obj}}(\mathcal{C})$ and each $g\in h^{X}_{B}$, i.e. we have $\xi _{A,B}={\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}|A,B}$. Thus ${\text{よ}}_{\mathcal{C}}$ is fully faithful.

Item 2: Preservation and Reflection of Isomorphisms
This follows from Chapter 11: Categories, Item 1 of Proposition 11.5.1.1.6 and Item 3 of Proposition 11.6.3.1.2.

Item 3: Density
Omitted.

Item 4: Interaction With Density Comonads
Omitted.

Item 5: Interaction With Codensity Monads
Omitted.


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