Beth companions of finitary essentially algebraic theories

Abstract: For categories, being balanced (meaning that every arrow that is both epic and monic is an isomorphism) can be regarded as a strong tameness property which plays an important role, for example, in algebra and logic. We study the problem of associating a balanced companion category, called \emph{Beth companion}, to a locally finitely presentable category (equivalently, the category of models of a finitary essentially algebraic theory). We show that, if it exists, the Beth companion is unique and can be described in terms of \emph{saturated} objects. Under some additional assumptions, we prove that Beth companions can be computed as orthogonality classes, and admit a syntactic presentation via Gabriel--Ulmer duality. Finally, we establish conditions for the transfer of properties, ensuring, for instance, that if the original category is equivalent to a (quasi)variety, its Beth companion is too.