On Naturally and Weakly Mal'tsev Categories

Abstract: We explore a hierarchy of notions in categorical algebra: Mal'tsev categories (where every reflexive relation is symmetric); naturally Mal'tsev categories (where every reflexive graph underlies a unique internal groupoid structure, also known as the Lawvere Condition); and weakly Mal'tsev categories (defined via the joint epimorphicity of local product injections). While varying in generality and historical prominence, these notions can be uniformly described using suitable classes of spans and a new structural condition, called the Kite Condition. To this end, we reintroduce the notion of a multiplicative directed kite, an internal categorical structure that generalizes both internal categories and internal pregroupoids. We also define and study the concept of a weakly Mal'tsev object, uncovering new structural insights and examples. While several of the results we present are known in the context of categories with finite limits, we show that they remain valid - and in fact gain clarity - in the broader setting of categories admitting only pullbacks of split epimorphisms along split epimorphisms.