A general acyclicity lemma and its uses
An -exact category is a pair consisting of an additive category and a class of sequences with terms satisfying certain axioms. We introduce -weakly idempotent complete categories. Then we prove that an additive -weakly idempotent complete category together with the class of all contractible sequences with terms is an -exact category. Some properties of the class are also discussed.
In the theory of accessible categories, pure subobjects, i.e. filtered colimits of split monomorphisms, play an important role. Here we investigate pure quotients, i.e., filtered colimits of split epimorphisms. For example, in abelian, finitely accessible categories, these are precisely the cokernels of pure subobjects, and pure subobjects are precisely the kernels of pure quotients.