Maps and Monads for Modal Frames


Dedicated to the memory of Willem Johannes Blok

The category-theoretic nature of general frames for modal logic is explored. A  new notion of ``modal map'' between frames is defined, generalizing  the usual notion of bounded morphism/p-morphism. The category $\Fm$ of all frames and modal maps has  reflective subcategories $\CHFm$ of compact Hausdorff frames, $\DFm$ of descriptive frames, and $\UEFm$ of ultrafilter enlargements of frames. All three subcategories are equivalent, and are dual to the category  of modal algebras and their homomorphisms.

The ultrafilter enlargement  of a frame $A$ is shown to be the free compact Hausdorff frame generated by $A$ relative to $\Fm$. The monad $\E$ of the resulting adjunction is examined and its Eilenberg-Moore category is shown to be isomorphic to $\CHFm$. A categorical equivalence between the Kleisli category of $\E$ and $\UEFm$ is defined from a construction that assigns to each frame $A$ a frame $A^*$ that is ``image-closed'' in the sense that every point-image $\{b:aRb\}$ in $A$ is topologically closed. $A^*$ is the unique image-closed frame having the same ultrafilter enlargement as $A$.

These ideas are connected to a category $\W$ shown by S. K. Thomason to be dual to the category of complete and atomic modal algebras and their homomorphisms. $\W$ is the full subcategory of the Kleisli category of $\E$ based on the Kripke frames.