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In category theory, a branch of mathematics, a pushout (also called a fibered coproduct or fibered sum or cocartesian square or amalgamated sum) is the colimit of a diagram consisting of two morphisms f : Z → X and g : Z → Y with a common domain. The pushout consists of an object P along with two morphisms X → P and Y → P which complete a commutative square with the two given morphisms f and g. In fact, the defining universal property of the pushout (given below) essentially says that the pushout is the "most general" way to complete this commutative square. A common notation for the pushout is
Contents
- Universal property
- Examples of pushouts
- Properties
- Construction via coproducts and coequalizers
- Application the Seifertvan Kampen theorem
- References
The pushout is the categorical dual of the pullback.
Universal property
Explicitly, the pushout of the morphisms f and g consists of an object P and two morphisms i1 : X → P and i2 : Y → P such that the diagram
commutes and such that (P, i1, i2) is universal with respect to this diagram. That is, for any other such set (Q, j1, j2) for which the following diagram commutes, there must exist a unique u : P → Q also making the diagram commute:
As with all universal constructions, the pushout, if it exists, is unique up to a unique isomorphism.
Examples of pushouts
Here are some examples of pushouts in familiar categories. Note that in each case, we are only providing a construction of an object in the isomorphism class of pushouts; as mentioned above, there may be other ways to construct it, but they are all equivalent.
1. Suppose that X, Y, and Z as above are sets, and that f : Z → X and g : Z → Y are set functions. The pushout of f and g is the disjoint union of X and Y, where elements sharing a common preimage (in Z) are identified, together with the morphisms i1 , i2 from X and Y, i.e.
2. The construction of adjunction spaces is an example of pushouts in the category of topological spaces. More precisely, if Z is a subspace of Y and g : Z → Y is the inclusion map we can "glue" Y to another space X along Z using an "attaching map" f : Z → X. The result is the adjunction space
3. A special case of the above is the wedge sum or one-point union; here we take X and Y to be pointed spaces and Z the one-point space. Then the pushout is
4. In the category of abelian groups, pushouts can be thought of as "direct sum with gluing" in the same way we think of adjunction spaces as "disjoint union with gluing". The zero group is a subgroup of every group, so for any abelian groups A and B, we have homomorphisms
f : 0 → Aand
g : 0 → B.The pushout of these maps is the direct sum of A and B. Generalizing to the case where f and g are arbitrary homomorphisms from a common domain Z, one obtains for the pushout a quotient group of the direct sum; namely, we mod out by the subgroup consisting of pairs (f(z),−g(z)). Thus we have "glued" along the images of Z under f and g. A similar approach yields the pushout in the category of R-modules for any ring R.
5. In the category of groups, the pushout is called the free product with amalgamation. It shows up in the Seifert–van Kampen theorem of algebraic topology (see below).
6. In CRing, the category of commutative rings (a full subcategory of the category of rings), the pushout is given by the tensor product of rings. In particular, let A, B, and C be objects (commutative rings with identity) in CRing and let f : C → A and g : C → B be morphisms (ring homomorphisms) in CRing. Then the tensor product,
with the morphisms
Properties
Construction via coproducts and coequalizers
Pushouts are equivalent to coproducts and coequalizers (if there is an initial object) in the sense that:
All of the above examples may be regarded as special cases of the following very general construction, which works in any category C satisfying:
In this setup, we obtain the pushout of morphisms f : Z → X and g : Z → Y by first forming the coproduct of the targets X and Y. We then have two morphisms from Z to this coproduct. We can either go from Z to X via f, then include into the coproduct, or we can go from Z to Y via g, then include. The pushout of f and g is the coequalizer of these new maps.
Application: the Seifert–van Kampen theorem
Returning to topology, the Seifert–van Kampen theorem answers the following question. Suppose we have a path-connected space X, covered by path-connected open subspaces A and B whose intersection D is also path-connected. (Assume also that the basepoint * lies in the intersection of A and B.) If we know the fundamental groups of A, B, and their intersection D, can we recover the fundamental group of X? The answer is yes, provided we also know the induced homomorphisms
There is a detailed exposition of this, in a slightly more general setting (covering groupoids) in the book by J. P. May listed in the references.