nLab
biproduct

Idea

A biproduct in a category $C$ is an operation that is both a product and a coproduct, in a compatible way. Finite biproducts are best known from additive categories and their generalisations.

Morphisms between finite biproducts are encoded in a matrix calculus.

Definition

Let $C$ be a category with zero morphisms; that is, $C$ is enriched over pointed sets (for example, $C$ might have a zero object). For $c_1,c_2$ two objects in $C$, suppose a product $c_1\times c_2$ and a coproduct $c_1\bigsqcup c_2$ both exist. Then consider the canonical morphism

$$r:c_1\bigsqcup c_2\to c_1\times c_2$$r : c_1 \sqcup c_2 \to c_1 \times c_2

defined by

$$(c_i\to c_1\bigsqcup c_2\stackrel{r}{\to }{c}_1\times c_2\to c_j)=\{\begin{array}{cc}{\mathrm{Id}}_{c_i}& \mathrm{if}i=j\\ 0_{i,j}& \mathrm{if}i\ne j\end{array}$$\left( c_i \to c_1 \sqcup c_2 \stackrel{r}{\to} c_1 \times c_2 \to c_j \right) = \left\{ \array{ Id_{c_i} & if i = j \\ 0_{i,j} & if i \neq j } \right. \,

where $0_{i,j}$ is the zero morphism from $c_i$ to $c_j$.

If this morphism $r$ is an isomorphism, then the isomorphic objects $c_1\times c_2$ and $c_1\bigsqcup c_2$ are called the biproduct of $c_1$ and $c_2$. This object is often denoted $c_1\oplus c_2$, alluding to the direct sum (which is often an example).

The above definition has a straightforward generalization to biproducts of any number of objects (although this requires extra structure on the category in constructive mathematics if the set indexing these objects might not have decidable equality). A zero object is the biproduct of no objects.

A related discussion is archived at $n$Forum.

Semiadditive categories

A category $C$ with all finite biproducts is called a semiadditive category. More precisely, this means that $C$ has all finite products and coproducts, that the unique map $0\to 1$ is an isomorphism (hence $C$ has a zero object), and that the canonical maps $c_1\bigsqcup c_2\to c_1\times c_2$ defined above are isomorphisms.

Amusingly, for $C$ to be semiadditive, it actually suffices to assume that $C$ has finite products and coproducts and that there exists any natural family of isomorphisms $c_1\bigsqcup c_2\cong c_1\times c_2$ — not necessarily the canonical maps constructed above. A proof can be found in

• Stephen Lack, “Non-canonical isomorphisms”, arXiv:0912.2126.

An additive category, although normally defined through the theory of enriched categories, may also be understood as a semiadditive category with an extra property, as explained below.

The existence of duals also tends to imply (semi)additivity; see this paper and this MO question.

Biproducts imply enrichment

A semiadditive category is automatically enriched over the monoidal category of abelian monoids with the usual tensor product, as follows.

Given two morphisms $f,g:a\to b$ in $C$, let their sum $f+g:a\to b$ be

$$a\to a\times a\cong a\oplus a\stackrel{f\oplus g}{\to }b\oplus b\cong b\bigsqcup b\to b.$$a \to a \times a \cong a \oplus a \overset{f \oplus g}{\to} b \oplus b \cong b \sqcup b \to b .

One proves that $+$ is associative and commutative. Of course, the zero morphism $0:a\to b$ is the usual zero morphism given by the zero object:

$$a\to 1\cong 0\to b.$$a \to 1 \cong 0 \to b .

One proves that $0$ is the neutral element for $+$ and that this matches the $0$ morphism that we began with in the definition. Note that in addition to a zero object, this construction actually only requires biproducts of an object with itself, i.e. biproducts of the form $a\oplus a$ rather than the more general $a\oplus b$.

If additionally every morphism $f:a\to b$ has an inverse $-f:a\to b$, then $C$ is enriched over the category $\mathrm{Ab}$ of abelian groups and is therefore (precisely) an additive category.

If, on the other hand, the addition of morphisms is idempotent ($f+f=f$), then $C$ is enriched over the category $\mathrm{SLat}$ of semilattices (and is therefore a kind of 2-poset).

Biproducts as enriched Cauchy colimits

Conversely, if $C$ is already known to be enriched over abelian monoids, then a binary biproduct may be defined purely diagrammatically as an object $c_1\oplus c_2$ together with injections $n_i:c_i\to c_1\oplus c_2$ and projections $p_i:c_1\oplus c_2\to c_i$ such that $p_j{n}_i={\delta }_{ij}$ (the Kronecker delta) and $n_1{p}_1+n_2{p}_2=1_{c_1\oplus c_2}$. It is easy to check that makes $c_1\oplus c_2$ a biproduct, and that any binary biproduct must be of this form. Similarly, an object $z$ of such a category is a zero object precisely when $1_z=0_z$, its identity is equal to the zero morphism. It follows that functors enriched over abelian monoids must automatically preserve finite biproducts, so that finite biproducts are a type of Cauchy colimit. Moreover, any product or coproduct in a category enriched over abelian monoids is actually a biproduct.

For categories enriched over suplattices, this extends to all small biproducts, with the condition $n_1{p}_1+n_2{p}_2=1_{c_1\oplus c_2}$ replaced by ${\bigvee }_i{n}_i{p}_i=1_{{⨁}_i{c}_i}$. In particular, the category of suplattices has all small biproducts.