Heaps of modules: categorical aspects

Abstract Connections between heaps of modules and (affine) modules over rings are explored. This leads to explicit, often constructive, descriptions of some categorical constructions and properties that are implicit in universal algebra and algebraic theories. In particular, it is shown that the category of groups with a compatible action of a truss T (also called pointed T -modules) is isomorphic to the category of modules over the ring $\mathrm {R}(T)$ universally associated to the truss. This is widely used in the explicit description of free objects. Next, it is proven that the category of heaps of modules over T is isomorphic to the category of affine modules over $\mathrm {R}(T)$ and, in order to make the picture complete, that (in the unital case) these are in turn equivalent to a specific subcategory of the slice category of pointed T -modules over $\mathrm {R}(T)$ . These correspondences and properties are then used to describe explicitly various (co)limits and to compare short exact sequences in the Barr-exact category of heaps of T -modules with short exact sequences as defined previously.