Two isomorphism criteria for directed colimits

TL;DR

This paper establishes general criteria for when two directed colimits in a category are isomorphic, based on the concept of confluence, and applies these criteria to algebraic structures and C*-algebras.

Contribution

It introduces abstract isomorphism criteria for directed colimits using confluence, unifying various specific cases in algebra and operator algebras.

Findings

Provides a general confluence-based isomorphism criterion

Applies the criterion to varieties of algebras and dimension groups

Shows that Bratteli's original criterion does not follow from the new results

Abstract

Using the general notions of finitely presentable and finitely generated object introduced by Gabriel and Ulmer in 1971, we prove that, in any (locally small) category, two sequences of finitely presentable objects and morphisms (or two sequences of finitely generated objects and monomorphisms) have isomorphic colimits (=direct limits) if, and only if, they are confluent. The latter means that the two given sequences can be connected by a back-and-forth chain of morphisms that is cofinal on each side, and commutes with the sequences at each finite stage. In several concrete situations, analogous isomorphism criteria are typically obtained by ad hoc arguments. The abstract results given here can play the useful r\^ole of discerning the general from the specific in situations of actual interest. We illustrate by applying them to varieties of algebras, on the one hand, and to dimension groups---the ordered $K_0$ of approximately finite-dimensional C*-algebras---on the other. The first application encompasses such classical examples as Kurosh's isomorphism criterion for countable torsion-free Abelian groups of finite rank. The second application yields the Bratteli-Elliott Isomorphism Criterion for dimension groups. Finally, we discuss Bratteli's original isomorphism criterion for approximately finite-dimensional C*-algebras, and show that his result does not follow from ours.