Additive category

In mathematics, specifically in category theory, an additive category is a preadditive category admitting all finitary biproducts.

There are two equivalent definitions of an additive category: One as a category equipped with additional structure, and another as a category equipped with no extra structure but whose objects and morphisms satisfy certain equations.

A category C is preadditive if all its hom-sets are abelian groups and composition of morphisms is bilinear; in other words, C is enriched over the monoidal category of abelian groups.

In a preadditive category, every finitary product is necessarily a coproduct, and hence a biproduct, and conversely every finitary coproduct is necessarily a product (this is a consequence of the definition, not a part of it). The empty product, is a final object and the empty product in the case of an empty diagram, an initial object. Both being limits, they are not finite products nor coproducts.

Thus an additive category is equivalently described as a preadditive category admitting all finitary products and with the null object or a preadditive category admitting all finitary coproducts and with the null object

We give an alternative definition.

Define a semiadditive category to be a category (note: not a preadditive category) which admits a zero object and all binary biproducts. It is then a remarkable theorem that the Hom sets naturally admit an abelian monoid structure. A proof of this fact is given below.

An additive category may then be defined as a semiadditive category in which every morphism has an additive inverse. This then gives the Hom sets an abelian group structure instead of merely an abelian monoid structure.