Monotone-light factorizations in coarse geometry

Abstract

We introduce large scale analogues of topological monotone and light maps, which we call coarsely monotone and coarsely light maps respectively. We show that these two classes of maps constitute a factorization system on the coarse category. We also show how coarsely monotone maps arise from a reflection in a similar way to classically monotone maps, and prove that coarsely monotone maps are stable under those pullbacks which exist in the coarse category. For the case of maps between proper metric spaces, we exhibit some connections between the coarse and classical notions of monotone and light using the Higson corona. Finally, we look at some coarse properties which are preserved by coarsely light maps such as finite asymptotic dimension and exactness, and make some remarks on the situation for groups and group homomorphisms.