2020/02/24 by Charles Walker, Walker, Charles
Mathematics · #Advanced Topics in Algebra #Algebraic structures and combinatorial models #Category Theory (math.CT) #FOS: Mathematics #Homotopy and Cohomology in Algebraic Topology
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2002.10334
openalex publication_date 2020/02/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In a bicategory of spans (an example of a 'generic bicategory') the factorization of a span (s,t) as the span (s,1) followed by (1,t) satisfies a simple universal property with respect to all factorizations in terms of the generic bicategory structure. Here we show that this universal property can in fact be used to characterize bicategories of spans. This characterization of spans is very different from the others in that it does not mention any adjointness conditions within the bicategory.