Major topics in Foundations of Mathematics

In mathematics, a topos (plural topoi or or toposes) is a category that behaves like the category of sheaves of sets on a topological space (or more generally, on a site). Topoi behave much like the category of sets and possess a notion of localization; they are a direct generalization of point-set topology. The Grothendieck topoi find applications in algebraic geometry, and more general elementary topoi are used in logic.

In mathematics, higher category theory is the part of category theory at a higher order, which means that some equalities are replaced by explicit arrows in order to be able to explicitly study the structure behind those equalities. Higher category theory is often applied in algebraic topology (especially in homotopy theory), where one studies algebraic invariants of spaces, such as the fundamental .

Foundations of mathematics are the logical and mathematical framework that allows the development of mathematics without generating self-contradictory theories, and, in particular, to have reliable concepts of theorems, proofs, algorithms, etc. This may also include the philosophical study of the relation of this framework with reality.

In mathematics, an ∞-topos (infinity-topos) is, roughly, an ∞-category such that its objects behave like sheaves of spaces with some choice of Grothendieck topology; in other words, it gives an intrinsic notion of sheaves without reference to an external space. The prototypical example of an ∞-topos is the ∞-category of sheaves of spaces on some topological space. But the notion is more flexible; for example, the ∞-category of étale sheaves on some scheme is not the ∞-category of sheaves on any topological space but it is still an ∞-topos.

In the mathematical field of category theory, the category of sets, denoted by Set, is the category whose objects are sets. The arrows or morphisms between sets A and B are the functions from A to B, and the composition of morphisms is the composition of functions.

Category theory is a general theory of mathematical structures and their relations. It was introduced by Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane in the middle of the 20th century in their foundational work on algebraic topology. Category theory is used in almost all areas of mathematics. In particular, many constructions of new mathematical objects from previous ones that appear similarly in several contexts are conveniently expressed and unified in terms of categories. Examples include quotient spaces, direct products, completion, and duality.

In mathematics, a set is a collection of different things; these things are called elements or members of the set and are typically mathematical objects of any kind: numbers, symbols, points in space, lines, other geometrical shapes, variables, or even other sets. A set may be finite or infinite, depending whether the number of its elements is finite or not. There is a unique set with no elements, called the empty set; a set with a single element is a singleton.