Cauchy density

Abstract: In the paper where he defined the Cauchy completion of a $\mathscr{V}$-category, Lawvere also defined a condition on a $\mathscr{V}$-functor which made it analogous to a map of metric spaces whose image is topologically dense in its codomain. We call this condition Cauchy density. In this note, we focus on the fully faithful Cauchy dense $\mathscr{V}$-functors, and show that the Cauchy completion of $\mathscr{A}$ is the largest $\mathscr{V}$-category that admits a fully faithful Cauchy dense $\mathscr{V}$-functor from $\mathscr{A}$. Moreover, we show that $F \colon \mathscr{A} \to \mathscr{B}$ is fully faithful and Cauchy dense iff $[F,\mathscr{C}] \colon [\mathscr{B},\mathscr{C}] \to [\mathscr{A},\mathscr{C}]$ is an equivalence for any Cauchy complete $\mathscr{C}$. Finally, we provide examples and characterisations of Cauchy dense functors in various contexts.