Wednesday, 6 November 2013

ct.category theory - conditions for natural transformations to exist?

Given a category $C$ with two objects and one non-identity morphism



$$ato b$$



and another similar category $D$



$$xto y,$$



we can define two functors $F,G:Cto D$ with



$$F:amapsto x, bmapsto y$$



and



$$G:amapsto x, bmapsto x$$



with morphisms doing the only thing they possibly can.



A natural transformation $alpha:FRightarrow G$ would require a component $alpha_b:F(b)to G(b)$, but there is no morphism $yto x$, so if I understand this correctly, there is no natural transformation from $F$ to $G$.



Is that correct? Is there a clear set of criteria required for there to exist a natural transformation?

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