From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/5803 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Chris Heunen Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: "compact", "rigid", or "autonomous"? Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 16:34:41 +0100 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: Chris Heunen NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1273945346 12931 80.91.229.12 (15 May 2010 17:42:26 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 15 May 2010 17:42:26 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: categories@mta.ca Sat May 15 19:42:23 2010 connect(): No such file or directory Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from mailserv.mta.ca ([138.73.1.1]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ODLNT-0005za-Vg for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Sat, 15 May 2010 19:42:20 +0200 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1ODKrz-000692-T6 for categories-list@mta.ca; Sat, 15 May 2010 14:09:47 -0300 In-Reply-To: Original-Sender: categories@mta.ca Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:5803 Archived-At: > I don't know if this is what people were thinking when they first > applied "compact" to categories As far as I'm aware, the terminology "compact" for categories came about via representation theory: the finite-dimensional unitary representations of a group form a category with certain properties, and the group can be reconstructed from that category when the group is compact. It seems the name transferred from groups to such categories. But I wouldn't claim historical correctness; perhaps someone has the definitive word about the origin of this terminology? Best, Chris [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]