Modest Sets are Equivalent to PERs

Abstract: The aim of this article is to give an expository account of the equivalence between modest sets and partial equivalence relations. Our proof is entirely self-contained in that we do not assume any knowledge of categorical realizability. At the heart of the equivalence lies the subquotient construction on a partial equivalence relation. The subquotient construction embeds the category of partial equivalence relations into the category of modest sets. We show that this embedding is a split essentially surjective functor, and thereby, an equivalence of categories. Our development is both constructive and predicative, and employs the language of homotopy type theory. All the mathematics presented in this article has been mechanised in Cubical Agda.