11.1.3 Representably Fully Faithful Morphisms

Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a bicategory.

A $1$-morphism $f\colon A\to B$ of $\mathcal{C}$ is representably fully faithful1 if the following equivalent conditions are satisfied:

  1. The $1$-morphism $f$ is representably faithful (Definition 11.1.1.1.1) and representably full (Definition 11.1.2.1.1).
  2. For each $X\in \text{Obj}\webleft (\mathcal{C}\webright )$, the functor
    \[ f_{*}\colon \mathsf{Hom}_{\mathcal{C}}\webleft (X,A\webright )\to \mathsf{Hom}_{\mathcal{C}}\webleft (X,B\webright ) \]

    given by postcomposition by $f$ is fully faithful.


1Further Terminology: Also called simply a fully faithful morphism, based on Item 1 of Example 11.1.3.1.3.

In detail, $f$ is representably fully faithful if the conditions in Remark 11.1.1.1.2 and Remark 11.1.2.1.2 hold:

  1. For all diagrams in $\mathcal{C}$ of the form

    if we have

    \[ \text{id}_{f}\mathbin {\star }\alpha =\text{id}_{f}\mathbin {\star }\beta , \]

    then $\alpha =\beta $.

  2. For each $X\in \text{Obj}\webleft (\mathcal{C}\webright )$ and each $2$-morphism
    of $\mathcal{C}$, there exists a $2$-morphism
    of $\mathcal{C}$ such that we have an equality
    of pasting diagrams in $\mathcal{C}$, i.e. such that we have
    \[ \beta =\text{id}_{f}\mathbin {\star }\alpha . \]

Here are some examples of representably fully faithful morphisms.

  1. Representably Fully Faithful Morphisms in $\mathsf{Cats}_{\mathsf{2}}$. The representably fully faithful morphisms in $\mathsf{Cats}_{\mathsf{2}}$ are precisely the fully faithful functors; see Chapter 9: Categories, Item 6 of Proposition 9.6.3.1.2.
  2. Representably Fully Faithful Morphisms in $\textbf{Rel}$. The representably fully faithful morphisms of $\textbf{Rel}$ coincide (Chapter 6: Relations, Item 3 of Proposition 6.3.8.1.1) with the representably full morphisms in $\textbf{Rel}$, which are characterised in Chapter 6: Relations, Item 2 of Proposition 6.3.8.1.1.


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