Abstract

We prove a structure theorem for compact inverse categories. The Ehresmann-Schein-Nambooripad theorem gives a structure theorem for inverse monoids: they are inductive groupoids. A particularly nice case due to Clifford is that commutative inverse monoids become semilattices of abelian groups. It has also been categorified by Hoehnke and DeWolf-Pronk to a structure theorem for inverse categories as locally complete inductive groupoids. We show that in the case of compact inverse categories, this takes the particularly nice form of a semilattice of compact groupoids. Moreover, one-object compact inverse categories are exactly commutative inverse monoids. Compact groupoids, in turn, are determined in particularly simple terms of 3-cocycles by Baez-Lauda.