Dagger category

In mathematics, a dagger category (also called involutive category or category with involution ) is a category equipped with a certain structure called dagger or involution. The name dagger category was coined by Selinger.

Formal definition

A dagger category is a category ${\mathcal {C}}$ equipped with an involutive, identity-on-objects functor $\dagger \colon {\mathcal {C}}^{op}\rightarrow {\mathcal {C}}$.

In detail, this means that it associates to every morphism $f\colon A\to B$ in ${\mathcal {C}}$ its adjoint $f^{\dagger }\colon B\to A$ such that for all $f\colon A\to B$ and $g\colon B\to C$,

• $\mathrm {id} _{A}=\mathrm {id} _{A}^{\dagger }\colon A\rightarrow A$
• $(g\circ f)^{\dagger }=f^{\dagger }\circ g^{\dagger }\colon C\rightarrow A$
• $f^{\dagger \dagger }=f\colon A\rightarrow B\,$

Note that in the previous definition, the term adjoint is used in the linear-algebraic sense, not in the category theoretic sense.

Some reputable sources additionally require for a category with involution that its set of morphisms is partially ordered and that the order of morphisms is compatible with the composition of morphisms, that is a<b implies $a\circ c<b\circ c$ for morphisms a, b, c whenever their sources and targets are compatible.

Examples

• The category Rel of sets and relations possesses a dagger structure i.e. for a given relation $R:X\rightarrow Y$ in Rel, the relation $R^{\dagger }:Y\rightarrow X$ is the relational converse of $R$. In this example, a self-adjoint morphism is a symmetric relation.

• The category Cob of cobordisms is a dagger compact category, in particular it possesses a dagger structure.

• The category FdHilb of finite dimensional Hilbert spaces also possesses a dagger structure: Given a linear map $f:A\rightarrow B$, the map $f^{\dagger }:B\rightarrow A$ is just its adjoint in the usual sense.

• Any monoid with involution is a dagger category with only one object. In fact, every endomorphism hom-set in a dagger category is not simply a monoid, but a monoid with involution, because of the dagger.

• A discrete category is trivially a dagger category.

• A groupoid (and as trivial corollary a group) also has a dagger structure with the adjoint of a morphism being its inverse. In this case, all morphisms are unitary.

Remarkable morphisms

In a dagger category ${\mathcal {C}}$, a morphism $f$ is called

• unitary if $f^{\dagger }=f^{-1}$;
• self-adjoint if $f=f^{\dagger }$ (this is only possible for an endomorphism $f\colon A\to A$).

The terms unitary and self-adjoint in the previous definition are taken from the category of Hilbert spaces where the morphisms satisfying those properties are then unitary and self-adjoint in the usual sense.

See also

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• *-algebra
• Dagger symmetric monoidal category
• Dagger compact category

References

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