We describe a simplified categorical approach to Galois descent theory. It is well known that Galois descent is a special case of Grothendieck descent, and that under mild additional conditions the category of Grothendieck descent data coincides with the Eilenberg-Moore category of algebras over a suitable monad. This also suggests using monads directly, and our monadic approach to Galois descent makes no reference to Grothendieck descent theory at all. In order to make Galois descent constructions perfectly clear, we also describe their connections with some other related constructions of categorical algebra, and make various explicit calculations, especially with 1-cocycles and 1-dimensional non-abelian cohomology, usually omitted in the literature.
Keywords: Descent theory, Galois theory, monadic functor, group cohomology
@article{TAC_2010_23_a4,
author = {Francis Borceux and Stefaan Caenepeel and George Janelidze},
title = {Monadic approach to {Galois} descent and cohomology},
journal = {Theory and applications of categories},
pages = {92--112},
year = {2010},
volume = {23},
language = {en},
url = {http://geodesic.mathdoc.fr/item/TAC_2010_23_a4/}
}
Francis Borceux; Stefaan Caenepeel; George Janelidze. Monadic approach to Galois descent and cohomology. Theory and applications of categories, The Bourn Festschrift, Tome 23 (2010), pp. 92-112. http://geodesic.mathdoc.fr/item/TAC_2010_23_a4/