An example of category where the product does not exists.

category-theory

I am working on an exercise stating as follows:

Consider the category $\mathcal{C}$ with only three objects $A,B,C$. The only morphisms in this category are $$Mor(A,C):=\{A\longrightarrow C\},\ \ Mor(B,C):=\{B\longrightarrow C\},\ \ id_{A}, id_{C}\ \text{and}\ id_{B}.$$Show that in this category, $A\times B$ does not exist.

Recall the definition of product in the category:

[Definition] Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a category of $\{A_{i}\}_{i\in I}$ be a family of objects in $\mathcal{C}$. Define the Product of $\{A_{i}\}_{i\in I}$ to be the object $P\in\mathcal{C}$ with morphisms $\{p_{i}:P\longrightarrow A_{i}\}$ such that for any object $C$ with morphisms $\{f_{i}:C\longrightarrow A_{i}\},$ there exists a unique morphism $f:C\longrightarrow P$ such that $f_{i}=p_{i}\circ f\ \text{for all}\ i.$

Back to this example, suppose $A\times B$ exists, denote this product to be $P$, then it must be an object in $\mathcal{C}$. That is $P=A$ or $B$ or $C$.

Suppose firstly $P=A$, then since it is a product, we must have morphisms $$\{p_{1}:A\longrightarrow A\}=id_{A}\ \text{and}\ \{p_{2}:A\longrightarrow B\},$$ such that for any object $W$ with morphisms $\{f_{1}:W\longrightarrow A\}$ and $\{f_{2}:W\longrightarrow B\}$, there exists a unique morphism $f:W\longrightarrow A$ such that $f_{i}=p_{i}\circ f$ for all $i\in \{1,2\}$.

Since this holds for all object $W$, it must hold in the case of $W=A$. Then $f_{1}=id_{A}$, and $f=id_{A}$, since there is no other choice for me.

Then I got stuck, what should I do to obtain a contradiction?

Thank you!

Best Answer

In your proof, you already have a contradiction as soon as you write $p_2 : A \to B$, since there is no morphism $A \to B$ in $\mathcal{C}$; you don't need the 'such that for any object W ...' part at all.

Similar contradictions can be obtained in the cases $P=B$ and $P=C$, since there is no morphism $B \to A$ and no morphism $C \to A$ in $\mathcal{C}$.