The Unity and Identity of decidable objects and double-negation sheaves

Abstract

Let ${\cal E}$ be a topos, ${{\rm Dec}({\cal E}) \rightarrow {\cal E}}$ be the full subcategory of decidable objects, and ${{\cal E}_{\neg\neg} \rightarrow {\cal E}}$ be the full subcategory of double-negation sheaves. We give sufficient conditions for the existence of a Unity and Identity ${{\cal E} \rightarrow {\cal S}}$ for the two subcategories of E above, making them Adjointly Opposite. Typical examples of such ${\cal E}$ include many `gros' toposes in Algebraic Geometry, simplicial sets and other toposes of `combinatorial' spaces in Algebraic Topology, and certain models of Synthetic Differential Geometry.