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I was reading the construction of the localization of a category in the book "Methods of homological algebra" of Manin and Gelfand.

Let me remind you the definition of the localization of a category: Let $B$ be an arbitrary category and $S$ a set of morphisms in $B$, the localization is a category $B[S^{-1}]$ with a functor $Q:B\rightarrow B[S^{-1}]$ such that $Q(s)$ is an isomorphism for every $s\in S$, and if another functor $F:B\rightarrow D$ has this property then there exists a functor $G:B[S^{-1}]\rightarrow D$ such that $F=G\circ Q$.

Before asking my question let me remind you the construction of the localization:

Let $B$ be an arbitrary category and "S" an arbitrary set of morphisms in $B$, we want to construct $B[S^{-1}]$. Set $\mathrm{Ob}\;B[S^{-1}]=\mathrm{Ob}\;B$, and define $Q$ to be the identity on objects. I want to construct the morphisms of $B[S^{-1}]$, to do that we proceed in several steps:

a) introduce variables $x_s$, one for every morphism $s\in S$.

b) Now construct an oriented graph $\Gamma$ as follows:

vert $\Gamma$=Ob $B$

Edges of $\Gamma$=$\{$morphisms in $B\}\cup\{x_s:s\in S\}$

if $f$ is a morphism $X\rightarrow Y$ then it correspondes to an edge $X\rightarrow Y$

if $s\in S$ then $x_s$ is an edge $Y\rightarrow X$.

A path in this graph is what you expect it to be.

Now lets define an equivalence relation among paths with the same beginning and same ending. We say that two paths are equivalent if they can be joined by a chain of these two types of operations:

1) two consecutive arrows can be replaced with their composition

2) the path $sx_s$ is equivalent to $id$ and the same for $x_ss$.

So a morphism is an equivalence class of paths with the common beginning and common end.

Now if you are interested you can easily continue defining $Q$ and proving that this category has the property that we want.

My question is this: are we sure that this is a category? Because the class of morphisms can be a proper class, it's not obvious to me that is a set. I was told that there is a way to fix this (or at least to bypass the problem); do you know a way to fix this issue?

(I know that for example if the set $S$ has good properties, i.e. it's a localizing system of morphisms, then there is a nicer construction, but I would like to know a general construction that works even if $S$ is not localizing).

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    What's your definition of a category? (My definition doesn't require that homs form a set.)2012-09-07
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    In my definition it does, in the book of Gelfand and Manin they define a category and the Homs should form a set, I'm reading this on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Localization_of_a_category#Set-theoretic_issues so it really seems that this is an issue.2012-09-07
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    I just checked on the book of Rotman "an introduction to homological algebra" and they require the homs to be a set2012-09-07
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    If you don't have "good properties" then the localisation can fail to be locally small... or at least it isn't clear how to prove it. This was a major problem in the early days.2012-09-07
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    @QiaochuYuan: What's your definition, precisely? Also, welcome to Berkeley - we haven't met yet, but I look forward to it.2012-09-07
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    @Alex: a class of objects, a class of morphisms, and everything else is the same. There are set-theoretic difficulties here but my philosophy is that most of what happens in category theory, at least the part I'm comfortable with, is syntactic and can be done in some sense "without completed infinities," although I haven't convinced myself that this can be formalized in any meaningful way. A category in which $\text{Hom}(a, b)$ always forms a set is called locally small in this convention ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_(mathematics)#Small_and_large_categories ). (Thanks!)2012-09-07
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    @Mec The localisation of a category, like any other localisation, satisfies a universal property. So as soon as you can prove that something has the universal property, it _is_ a localisation, no matter how it's constructed!2012-09-07
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    @ZhenLin: you are right, I can construct $K(A)[S^{-1}]$ and then prove that it has the universal property and so $K(A)[S^{-1}]=Kom(A)[S^{-1}]$, but I'm still curious to know if somebody knows something about the general case.2012-09-07
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    Apparently, localisation of a locally presentable category with respect to a _set_ of morphisms can be done: this is the orthogonal subcategory problem. I haven't studied this, though. See [this MO question](http://mathoverflow.net/questions/92929/localization-of-a-symmetric-monoidal-category-at-a-single-morphism).2012-09-07

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