mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, a canonical map, also called a natural map, is a map or morphism between objects that arises naturally from the definition or the construction of the objects. Often, it is a map which preserves the widest amount of structure. A choice of a canonical map sometimes depends on a convention (e.g., a sign convention). A closely related notion is a structure map or structure morphism; the map or morphism that comes with the given structure on the object. These are also sometimes called canonical maps. A

canonical isomorphism In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between them. The word i ...

is a canonical map that is also an

isomorphism In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between them. The word i ...

(i.e., invertible). In some contexts, it might be necessary to address an issue of ''choices'' of canonical maps or canonical isomorphisms; for a typical example, see prestack. For a discussion of the problem of defining a canonical map see Kevin Buzzard's talk at the 2022 Grothendieck conference.

Examples

*If ''N'' is a normal subgroup of a group ''G'', then there is a canonical

surjective In mathematics, a surjective function (also known as surjection, or onto function) is a function that every element can be mapped from element so that . In other words, every element of the function's codomain is the image of one element o ...

group homomorphism from ''G'' to the quotient group ''G''/''N,'' that sends an element ''g'' to the coset determined by ''g''. *If ''I'' is an

ideal Ideal may refer to: Philosophy * Ideal (ethics), values that one actively pursues as goals * Platonic ideal, a philosophical idea of trueness of form, associated with Plato Mathematics * Ideal (ring theory), special subsets of a ring considered ...

of a ring ''R'', then there is a canonical surjective ring homomorphism from ''R'' onto the quotient ring ''R/I'', that sends an element ''r'' to its coset ''I+r''. *If ''V'' is a

vector space In mathematics and physics, a vector space (also called a linear space) is a set whose elements, often called '' vectors'', may be added together and multiplied ("scaled") by numbers called ''scalars''. Scalars are often real numbers, but can ...

, then there is a canonical map from ''V'' to the second

dual space In mathematics, any vector space ''V'' has a corresponding dual vector space (or just dual space for short) consisting of all linear forms on ''V'', together with the vector space structure of pointwise addition and scalar multiplication by cons ...

of ''V,'' that sends a vector ''v'' to the linear functional ''f''_''v'' defined by ''f''_''v''(λ) = λ(''v''). *If is a homomorphism between

commutative ring In mathematics, a commutative ring is a ring in which the multiplication operation is commutative. The study of commutative rings is called commutative algebra. Complementarily, noncommutative algebra is the study of ring properties that are not ...

s, then ''S'' can be viewed as an

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...

over ''R''. The ring homomorphism ''f'' is then called the structure map (for the algebra structure). The corresponding map on the prime spectra is also called the structure map. *If ''E'' is a

vector bundle In mathematics, a vector bundle is a topological construction that makes precise the idea of a family of vector spaces parameterized by another space X (for example X could be a topological space, a manifold, or an algebraic variety): to every p ...

over a

topological space In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a geometrical space in which closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric distance. More specifically, a topological space is a set whose elements are called poin ...

''X'', then the projection map from ''E'' to ''X'' is the structure map. *In

topology In mathematics, topology (from the Greek words , and ) is concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without closing ...

, a canonical map is a function ''f'' mapping a set ''X'' → ''X/R'' (''X'' modulo ''R''), where ''R'' is an equivalence relation on ''X'', that takes each ''x'' in ''X'' to the

equivalence class In mathematics, when the elements of some set S have a notion of equivalence (formalized as an equivalence relation), then one may naturally split the set S into equivalence classes. These equivalence classes are constructed so that elements a ...

'x''modulo ''R''.

References

Mathematical terminology {{math-stub