According to the algebraic approach to spacetime, a thoroughgoing dynamicism, physical fields exist without an underlying manifold. This view is usually implemented by postulating an algebraic structure (e.g., commutative ring) of scalar-valued funct
ions, which can be interpreted as representing a scalar field, and deriving other structures from it. In this work, we point out that this leads to the unjustified primacy of an undetermined scalar field. Instead, we propose to consider algebraic structures in which all (and only) physical fields are primitive. We explain how the theory of emph{natural operations} in differential geometry---the modern formalism behind classifying diffeomorphism-invariant constructions---can be used to obtain concrete implementations of this idea for any given collection of fields. For concrete examples, we illustrate how our approach applies to a number of particular physical fields, including electrodynamics coupled to a Weyl spinor.
Many special classes of simplicial sets, such as the nerves of categories or groupoids, the 2-Segal sets of Dyckerhoff and Kapranov, and the (discrete) decomposition spaces of G{a}lvez, Kock, and Tonks, are characterized by the property of sending ce
rtain commuting squares in the simplex category $Delta$ to pullback squares of sets. We introduce weaker analogues of these properties called completeness conditions, which require squares in $Delta$ to be sent to weak pullbacks of sets, defined similarly to pullback squares but without the uniqueness property of induced maps. We show that some of these completeness conditions provide a simplicial set with lifts against certain subsets of simplices first introduced in the theory of database design. We also provide reduced criteria for checking these properties using factorization results for pushouts squares in $Delta$, which we characterize completely, along with several other classes of squares in $Delta$. Examples of simplicial sets with completeness conditions include quasicategories, Kan complexes, many of the compositories and gleaves of Flori and Fritz, and bar constructions for algebras of certain classes of monads. The latter is our motivating example which we discuss in a companion paper.
We present a novel proof of de Finettis Theorem characterizing permutation-invariant probability measures of infinite sequences of variables, so-called exchangeable measures. The proof is phrased in the language of Markov categories, which provide an
abstract categorical framework for probability and information flow. The diagrammatic and abstract nature of the arguments makes the proof intuitive and easy to follow. We also show how the usual measure-theoretic version of de Finettis Theorem for standard Borel spaces is an instance of this result.
In this note, we prove that a semigroup $S$ is left amenable if and only if every two nonzero elements of $ell^1_+(S)$ have a common nonzero right multiple, where $ell^1_+(S)$ is the positive part of the Banach algebra $ell^1(S)$, or equivalently the
semiring of finite measures on $S$. This characterization of amenability is new even for groups.
Markov categories are a recent categorical approach to the mathematical foundations of probability and statistics. Here, this approach is advanced by stating and proving equivalent conditions for second-order stochastic dominance, a widely used way o
f comparing probability distributions by their spread. Furthermore, we lay foundation for the theory of comparing statistical experiments within Markov categories by stating and proving the classical Blackwell-Sherman-Stein Theorem. Our version not only offers new insight into the proof, but its abstract nature also makes the result more general, automatically specializing to the standard Blackwell-Sherman-Stein Theorem in measure-theoretic probability as well as a Bayesian version that involves prior-dependent garbling. Along the way, we define and characterize representable Markov categories, within which one can talk about Markov kernels to or from spaces of distributions. We do so by exploring the relation between Markov categories and Kleisli categories of probability monads.
The algebraic expression $3 + 2 + 6$ can be evaluated to $11$, but it can also be partially evaluated to $5 + 6$. In categorical algebra, such partial evaluations can be defined in terms of the $1$-skeleton of the bar construction for algebras of a m
onad. We show that this partial evaluation relation can be seen as the relation internal to the category of algebras generated by relating a formal expression to its total evaluation. The relation is transitive for many monads which describe commonly encountered algebraic structures, and more generally for BC monads on $mathsf{Set}$ (which are those monads for which the underlying functor and the multiplication are weakly cartesian). We find that this is not true for all monads: we describe a finitary monad on $mathsf{Set}$ for which the partial evaluation relation on the terminal algebra is not transitive. With the perspective of higher algebraic rewriting in mind, we then investigate the compositional structure of the bar construction in all dimensions. We show that for algebras of BC monads, the bar construction has fillers for all directed acyclic configurations in $Delta^n$, but generally not all inner horns.
We study the asymptotic behaviour of random walks on topological abelian groups $G$. Our main result is a sufficient condition for one random walk to overtake another in the stochastic order induced by any suitably large positive cone $G_+ subseteq G
$, assuming that both walks have Radon distributions and compactly supported steps. We explain in which sense our sufficient condition is very close to a necessary one. Our result is a direct application of a recently proven theorem of real algebra, namely a Positivstellensatz for preordered semirings. It is due to Aubrun and Nechita in the one-dimensional case, but new already for $R^n$ with $n > 1$. We use our result to derive a formula for the rate at which the probabilities of a random walk decay relative to those of another, again for walks on $G$ with compactly supported Radon steps. In the case where one walk is a constant, this formula specializes to a version of Cramers large deviation theorem.
Motivated by trying to find a new proof of Artins theorem on positive polynomials, we state and prove a Positivstellensatz for preordered semirings in the form of a local-global principle. It relates the given algebraic order on a suitably well-behav
ed semiring to the geometrical order defined in terms of a probing by homomorphisms to test algebras. We introduce and study the latter as structures intended to capture the behaviour of a semiring element in the infinitesimal neighbourhoods of a real point of the real spectrum. As first applications of our local-global principle, we prove two abstract non-Archimedean Positivstellensatze. The first one is a non-Archimedean generalization of the classical Positivstellensatz of Krivine-Kadison-Dubois, while the second one is deeper. A companion paper will use our second Positivstellensatz to derive an asymptotic classification of random walks on locally compact abelian groups. As an important intermediate result, we develop an abstract Positivstellensatz for preordered semifields which states that a semifield preorder is always the intersection of its total extensions. We also introduce quasiordered rings and develop some of their theory. While these are related to Marshalls $T$-modules, we argue that quasiordered rings offer an improved definition which puts them among the basic objects of study for real algebra.
Markov categories are a recent category-theoretic approach to the foundations of probability and statistics. Here we develop this approach further by treating infinite products and the Kolmogorov extension theorem. This is relevant for all aspects of
probability theory in which infinitely many random variables appear at a time. These infinite tensor products $bigotimes_{i in J} X_i$ come in t
We consider three monads on Top, the category of topological spaces, which formalize topological aspects of probability and possibility in categorical terms. The first one is the Hoare hyperspace monad H, which assigns to every space its space of clo
sed subsets equipped with the lower Vietoris topology. The second is the monad V of continuous valuations, also known as the extended probabilistic powerdomain. We construct both monads in a unified way in terms of double dualization. This reveals a close analogy between them, and allows us to prove that the operation of taking the support of a continuous valuation is a morphism of monads from V to H. In particular, this implies that every H-algebra (topological complete semilattice) is also a V-algebra. Third, we show that V can be restricted to a submonad of tau-smooth probability measures on Top. By composing these two morphisms of monads, we obtain that taking the support of a tau-smooth probability measure is also a morphism of monads.
