A proof of $\mathcal{K}\otimes V\cong V$ using the universal property of the tensor product (Category theory in context Edition 1, 2.3.ii.i)

Table of Contents

• 1. Uncle Yoneda will give you the basic framework
• 2. You should look at the functor $\text{Vect}(\mathcal{K}\otimes W,-)$
• 3. That $\text{Vect}(k,-)$ is interesting tho
  • 3.1. Lemma: for all $Y$ vector spaces, $\text{Vect}(k,Y)\cong Y$ as a vector space.
• 4. How does this help us?
• 5. OK cool, but that does not establish the result!
• 6. In the end

I found this little exercise super fun, but it took me some days to finally see it. The question is this

Let $V$ be a vector space over a field $\mathcal{K}$. Prove that $V\cong \mathcal{K}\otimes V$.

I will take a non-dry formal approach on how to see this is true. We will do this without the explicit construction of what we specifically mean is a tensor space.

1. Uncle Yoneda will give you the basic framework

Tensor products are intimately related to bi-linear forms ¹. If we study the functor $$\text{Bilim}(V,W;-):\text{Vect}\to \text{Set}$$ under the Yoneda lemma we get the following natural isomorphism $$\mathrm{\forall }C,\text{Nat}(\text{Vect}(C,-);\text{Bilim}(V,W;-))\underset{\leftarrow \psi }{\underbrace{\cong }}\text{Bilim}(V,W;C)$$ On top of Yoneda, we get a universal property for Bilim, as when $C=V\otimes W$ the universal object and $\otimes :V\times W\to V\otimes W$, $\otimes \in \text{Bilim}(V,W;V\otimes W)$ the universal element. Basically this means that $$\psi (\otimes ):\text{Vect}(V\otimes W,-)\to \text{Bilim}(V,W;-)$$ it not just a natural transformation between functors, it is in fact a natural isomorphism between these functors. $$\text{Vect}(V\otimes W,-)\cong \text{Bilim}(V,W;-)$$ where $V,W$ are arbitrary.

So what? where is going this anyways? Well the book had a previous example of how this can be useful. We will see how the identity morphism of some space will deform through these functors and natural transformations to establish the result we want.

2. You should look at the functor $\text{Vect}(\mathcal{K}\otimes W,-)$

Here $\mathcal{K}$ is seen as a trivial vector space over itself. By the previous section we know that $$\text{Vect}(k\otimes V,-)\cong \text{Bilim}(k,V;-)\cong \text{Bilim}(V,k;-).$$ So far so good. Here is something interesting, by currying, Bilim can be seen a two stacked Vect functors: $$\text{Bilim}(V,k;-)\cong \text{Vect}(V,\text{Vect}(k,-))$$ this is clear from the definition of what bi-linearity means, linear of each variable by each own.

3. That $\text{Vect}(k,-)$ is interesting tho

Yeah, if you know some functional programming you will know that $$\mathrm{\forall }a.\text{Unit}\to a\cong a.$$ This is the equivalent for linear function

3.1. Lemma: for all $Y$ vector spaces, $\text{Vect}(k,Y)\cong Y$ as a vector space.

This is informal, but here is the intuition. Let us take an $f\in \text{Vect}(k,Y)$ freely. Given that is a linear function, we have that $$\mathrm{\forall }z\in \mathcal{K},f(z)=z\cdot f(1).$$ So this means that the element $$\overrightarrow{y}=f(1)$$ has all the special info needed to identify $f$. This is a way to establish the isomorphism that we are declaring.

4. How does this help us?

Oh yeah, remember that $$\text{Vect}(V,\text{Vect}(k,-))?$$ I declare that this is isomorphic to $$\text{Vect}(V,\text{Vect}(k,-))\cong \text{Vect}(V,-)$$ by the previous lemma.

Joining all the previous natural isormophisms we reach that $$\text{Vect}(k\otimes V,-)\underset{\to p}{\underbrace{\cong }}\text{Vect}(V,-)$$

5. OK cool, but that does not establish the result!

We are just missing the final step. We know for a previous section of the book that homset are a really nice kind of functors. The Yoneda lemma says that $$F:\mathcal{C}\to {\text{Set}}^{C^{\text{op}}}$$ $$X\mapsto \text{Hom}(X,-)$$ are fully and faithful functors. A nice consequence of this is that these functors reflect isomorphisms.

What we have proved is that there is an isomorphism $$p:\text{Vect}(k\otimes V,-)\to \text{Vect}(V,-).$$ More explicitly $$p:F(k\otimes V)\to F(V).$$ By the previous paragraph this is a full and faithful functor, thus it reflect to an isomorphism $$b:k\otimes V\to V$$ $$F(b)=p$$ which is a proof that $k\otimes V\cong V$. $◼$

6. In the end

Notice how this proof did not rely on the explicit construction of tensor spaces. We did not use any identities on the dimensions either, as it is know that $$\text{dim}(k)=1,\text{dim}(k\otimes V)=\dim (k)\cdot \text{dim}(V)=\text{dim}(V)$$ We just dealt with natural isomorphisms between functors and universal properties. It is a high-level view on how different mathematical object relate to each others without looking at the specific. In this sense, category theory does not give you new results, it gives you a new language (hopefully succinct) on how to express known results.

Footnotes:

¹

This is confusing, a bi-linear function is not some kind of super-linear function. In fact it is a form of anti-linearity. Bi-linear functions are not linear on both variables at the same time.

Created: 2023-04-16 dom 00:16

Validate