4.7.2 Surjective Functions

Let $A$ and $B$ be sets.

A function $f\colon A\to B$ is surjective if it satisfies the following condition:

  • (★)
  • For each $b\in B$, there exists some $a\in A$ such that $f(a)=b$.

Let $f\colon A\to B$ be a function.

  1. 1.

    Characterisations. The following conditions are equivalent:1

    1. (a)

      The function $f$ is surjective.

    2. (b)

      The function $f$ is an epimorphism in $\mathsf{Sets}$.

    3. (c)

      The function $f$ is an section in $\mathsf{Sets}$.

    4. (d)

      The inverse image function

      \[ f^{-1}\colon \mathcal{P}(B)\to \mathcal{P}(A) \]

      associated to $f$ is injective.

    5. (e)

      The direct image function

      \[ f_{!}\colon \mathcal{P}(A)\to \mathcal{P}(B) \]

      associated to $f$ is surjective.

    6. (f)

      The codirect image function

      \[ f_{*}\colon \mathcal{P}(A)\to \mathcal{P}(B) \]

      associated to $f$ is surjective.

    7. (g)

      The inverse image functor

      \[ f^{-1}\colon (\mathcal{P}(B),\subset )\to (\mathcal{P}(A),\subset ) \]

      associated to $f$ is full.

    8. (h)

      The direct image functor

      \[ f_{!}\colon (\mathcal{P}(A),\subset )\to (\mathcal{P}(B),\subset ) \]

      associated to $f$ is essentially surjective.

    9. (i)

      The inverse image functor

      \[ f^{-1}\colon (\mathcal{P}(B),\subset )\to (\mathcal{P}(A),\subset ) \]

      associated to $f$ is fully faithful.

    10. (j)

      The codirect image functor

      \[ f_{*}\colon (\mathcal{P}(A),\subset )\to (\mathcal{P}(B),\subset ) \]

      associated to $f$ is essentially surjective.

    11. (k)

      The diagram

      commutes. That is, we have

      \[ f_{!}(f^{-1}(b))=\left\{ b\right\} \]

      for each $b\in B$.

    12. (l)

      We have

      In other words, we have

      \[ \left\{ b\in B\ \middle |\ \begin{aligned} & \text{there exists some $a\in f^{-1}(U)$}\\ & \text{such that $f(a)=b$}\end{aligned} \right\} =U \]

      for each $U\in \mathcal{P}(A)$.

    13. (m)

      We have

      In other words, we have

      \[ \left\{ b\in B\ \middle |\ f^{-1}(b)\subset f^{-1}(U)\right\} =U \]

      for each $U\in \mathcal{P}(B)$.

  2. 2.

    Interaction With Composition. Let $f\colon A\to B$ and $g\colon B\to C$ be functions.

    1. (a)

      If $f$ and $g$ are surjective, then so is $g\circ f$.

    2. (b)

      If $g\circ f$ is surjective, then so is $g$.

    3. (c)

      If $g$ and $g\circ f$ are surjective, then $f$ may fail to be surjective.

    4. (d)

      The class of surjective functions does not satisfy the two-out-of-three property of Unresolved reference.

  3. 3.

    Interaction With Identities. For any set $A$, the identity function $\operatorname {\mathrm{id}}_{A}$ is surjective.


  1. 1We are assuming the axiom of choice for the equivalence between Item 1a and Item 1c.

Item 1: Characterisations
We will proceed by showing:

Step 1: Item 1a$\iff $Item 1b
We claim Item 1a and Item 1b are indeed equivalent:

  • Item 1a$\implies $Item 1b: We proceed in a few steps:

    • Let $g,h\colon B\rightrightarrows C$ be morphisms such that $g\circ f=h\circ f$.

    • For each $a\in A$, we have

      \[ g(f(a))=h(f(a)). \]
    • However, this implies that

      \[ g(b)=h(b) \]

      for each $b\in B$, as $f$ is surjective.

    • Thus $g=h$ and $f$ is an epimorphism.

  • Item 1b$\implies $Item 1a: We proceed by contrapositive. Consider the diagram

    where $h$ is the map defined by $h(b)=0$ for each $b\in B$ and $g$ is the map defined by

    \[ g(b)=\begin{cases} 1 & \text{if }b\in \mathrm{Im}(f),\\ 0 & \text{otherwise.} \end{cases} \]

    Then $h\circ f=g\circ f$, as $h(f(a))=1=g(f(a))$ for each $a\in A$. However, for any $b\in B\setminus \mathrm{Im}(f)$, we have

    \[ g(b)=0\neq 1=h(b). \]

    Therefore $g\neq h$ and $f$ is not an epimorphism.

Step 2: Item 1a$\iff $Item 1c
Omitted.

Step 3: Item 1a$\iff $Item 1d
We claim Item 1a and Item 1d are indeed equivalent:

  • Item 1a$\implies $Item 1d: We proceed in a few steps:

    • Assume that $f$ is surjective. Let $U,V\in \mathcal{P}(B)$ such that $f^{-1}(U)=f^{-1}(V)$. We wish to show that $U=V$.

    • To show that $U\subset V$, let $b\in U$.

    • Since $f$ is surjective, there must exist some $a\in A$ such that $f(a)=b$.

    • By the definition of the inverse image, since $f(a)=b$ and $b\in U$, we have $a\in f^{-1}(U)$.

    • By our initial assumption, $f^{-1}(U)=f^{-1}(V)$, so it follows that $a\in f^{-1}(V)$.

    • Again, by the definition of the inverse image, $a\in f^{-1}(V)$ means that $f(a)\in V$.

    • Since $f(a)=b$, we have shown that $b\in V$.

    • This establishes that $U\subset V$. A symmetric argument shows that $V\subset U$.

    • Thus $U=V$, proving that $f^{-1}$ is injective.

  • Item 1d$\implies $Item 1a: We proceed in a few steps:

    • Assume that the inverse image function $f^{-1}$ is injective. Suppose, for the sake of contradiction, that $f$ is not surjective.

    • The assumption that $f$ is not surjective means there exists some $b_{0}\in B$ such that for all $a\in A$, we have $f(a)\neq b_{0}$.

    • By the definition of the inverse image, this is equivalent to stating that $f^{-1}(\left\{ b_{0}\right\} )=\text{Ø}$.

    • Since $f^{-1}(\text{Ø})=\text{Ø}$, we have $f^{-1}(\left\{ b_{0}\right\} )=f^{-1}(\text{Ø})$.

    • Since $f^{-1}$ is injective, this implies that $\left\{ b_{0}\right\} =\text{Ø}$.

    • This is a contradiction, as the singleton set $\left\{ b_{0}\right\} $ is non-empty.

    • Therefore, $f$ is surjective.

Step 4: Item 1d$\iff $Item 1g
We claim that Item 1d and Item 1g are equivalent:

  • Item 1d$\implies $Item 1g: We proceed in a few steps:

    • Let $U,V\in \mathcal{P}(B)$ such that $f^{-1}(U)\subset f^{-1}(V)$, assume $f^{-1}$ to be injective, and consider the set $U\cup V$.

    • Since $f^{-1}(U)\subset f^{-1}(V)$, we have

      \begin{align*} f^{-1}(U\cup V) & = f^{-1}(U)\cup f^{-1}(V)\\ & = f^{-1}(V), \end{align*}

      where we have used Item 5 of Proposition 4.6.2.1.3 for the first equality.

    • Since $f^{-1}$ is injective, this implies $U\cup V=V$.

    • Thus $U\subset V$, as we wished to show.

  • Item 1g$\implies $Item 1d: We proceed in a few steps:

    • Suppose Item 1g holds, and let $U,V\in \mathcal{P}(B)$ such that $f^{-1}(U)=f^{-1}(V)$.

    • Since $f^{-1}(U)=f^{-1}(V)$, we have $f^{-1}(U)\subset f^{-1}(V)$ and $f^{-1}(V)\subset f^{-1}(U)$.

    • By assumption, this implies $U\subset V$ and $V\subset U$.

    • Thus $U=V$, showing $f^{-1}$ to be injective.

Step 5: Item 1a$\iff $Item 1k
We have

\[ f_{!}(f^{-1}(b))=\left\{ b\in B\ \middle |\ \begin{aligned} & \text{there exists some $a\in f^{-1}(b)$}\\ & \text{such that $f(a)=b$}\end{aligned} \right\} , \]

so the condition $f_{!}(f^{-1}(b))=\left\{ b\right\} $ holds iff $f$ is surjective.

Step 6: Item 1k$\iff $Item 1l
We claim that Item 1k and Item 1l are indeed equivalent:

  • Item 1k$\implies $Item 1l: We have

    \begin{align*} [f_{!}\circ f^{-1}](U) & \mathrel {\smash {\overset {\mathclap {\scriptscriptstyle \text{def}}}=}}f_{!}(f^{-1}(U))\\ & = f_{!}\left(f^{-1}\left(\bigcup _{u\in U}\left\{ u\right\} \right)\right)\\ & = f_{!}\left(\bigcup _{u\in U}f^{-1}(\left\{ u\right\} )\right)\\ & = \bigcup _{u\in U}f_{!}(f^{-1}(\left\{ u\right\} ))\\ & = \bigcup _{u\in U}f_{!}(f^{-1}(u))\\ & = \bigcup _{u\in U}\left\{ u\right\} \\ & = U \end{align*}

    for each $U\in \mathcal{P}(B)$, where we have used Item 5 of Proposition 4.6.1.1.5 for the third equality and Item 5 of Proposition 4.6.2.1.3 for the fourth equality.

  • Item 1l$\implies $Item 1k: Applying the condition $f_{!}\circ f^{-1}=\operatorname {\mathrm{id}}_{\mathcal{P}(B)}$ to $U=\left\{ b\right\} $ gives

    \[ f_{!}(f^{-1}(\left\{ b\right\} ))=\left\{ b\right\} . \]

Step 7: Item 1a$\iff $Item 1m
First, note that for the condition $f^{-1}(b)\subset f^{-1}(U)$ to hold, we must have $b\in U$ or $f^{-1}(b)=\text{Ø}$. Thus

\[ f_{*}(f^{-1}(U))=(U\cap \mathrm{Im}(f))\cup (B\setminus \mathrm{Im}(f)). \]

We now claim that Item 1a and Item 1m are indeed equivalent:

  • Item 1a$\implies $Item 1m: If $f$ is surjective, we have

    \begin{align*} (U\cap \mathrm{Im}(f))\cup (B\setminus \mathrm{Im}(f)) & = U\cup \text{Ø}\\ & = U, \end{align*}

    so $f_{*}\circ f^{-1}=\operatorname {\mathrm{id}}_{\mathcal{P}(B)}$.

  • Item 1m$\implies $Item 1a: Taking $U=\text{Ø}$ gives

    \begin{align*} f_{*}(f^{-1}(\text{Ø})) & = (\text{Ø}\cap \mathrm{Im}(f))\cup (B\setminus \mathrm{Im}(f))\\ & = B\setminus \mathrm{Im}(f),\end{align*}

    so the condition $f_{*}(f^{-1}(\text{Ø}))=\text{Ø}$ implies $B\setminus \mathrm{Im}(f)=\text{Ø}$. Thus $\mathrm{Im}(f)=B$ and $f$ is surjective.

This finishes the proof.

Step 9: Item 1l$\iff $Item 1e
Given $V\in \mathcal{P}(B)$, we must show there exists some $U\in \mathcal{P}(A)$ such that $f_{!}(U)=V$. Choosing $U=f^{-1}(V)$, it follows from Item 1l that we have $f_{!}(f^{-1}(V))=V$. Thus $f_{!}$ is surjective.

Step 10: Item 1e$\iff $Item 1a
Let $b\in B$. Since $f_{!}$ is a surjection, there exists some $U\in \mathcal{P}(A)$ such that $f_{!}(U)=\left\{ b\right\} $. Since $f_{!}(U)=\text{Ø}$ iff $U=\text{Ø}$, it follows that there exists some $a\in U$ with $f(a)=b$. Thus $f$ is surjective.

Step 11: Item 1e$\iff $Item 1f
This follows from Item 17 of Proposition 4.6.1.1.5.

Step 11: Item 1e$\iff $Item 1h
This follows from the fact that $\mathcal{P}(B)$ is locally posetal.

Step 12: Item 1g$\iff $Item 1i
This follows from the fact that $\mathcal{P}(A)$ is locally posetal.

Step 13: Item 1f$\iff $Item 1j
This follows from the fact that $\mathcal{P}(B)$ is locally posetal.

Item 2: Interaction With Composition
Omitted.

Item 3: Interaction With Identities
Omitted.


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