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We study the structure and utility of the category formed by small categories and retrofunctors. We analyze key properties of this category, such as limits, colimits, and factorizations, and explain how these structures support various forms of composition and interaction. The chapter delves into the cofree comonoid construction, exploring how it connects to familiar concepts in category theory, and extends our understanding of state-based systems. We also discuss applications of retrofunctors and demonstrate how they can be used to model complex processes in a structured way.
We show that the category of comonoids, defined with respect to the composition product in the category of polynomial functors, is equivalent to a category of small categories as objects but with an interesting type of morphism called retrofunctors. Unlike traditional functors, retrofunctors operate in a forward-backward manner, offering a different kind of relationship between categories. We introduce this concept of retrofunctors, provide examples to illustrate their behavior, and explain their role in modeling state systems.
Everywhere one looks, one finds dynamic interacting systems: entities expressing and receiving signals between each other and acting and evolving accordingly over time. In this book, the authors give a new syntax for modeling such systems, describing a mathematical theory of interfaces and the way they connect. The discussion is guided by a rich mathematical structure called the category of polynomial functors. The authors synthesize current knowledge to provide a grounded introduction to the material, starting with set theory and building up to specific cases of category-theoretic concepts such as limits, adjunctions, monoidal products, closures, comonoids, comodules, and bicomodules. The text interleaves rigorous mathematical theory with concrete applications, providing detailed examples illustrated with graphical notation as well as exercises with solutions. Graduate students and scholars from a diverse array of backgrounds will appreciate this common language by which to study interactive systems categorically.
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