Lifting retracted diagrams with respect to projectable functors

Abstract

We prove a general categorical theorem that enables us to state that under certain conditions, the range of a functor is large. As an application, we prove various results of which the following is a prototype: If every diagram, indexed by a lattice, of finite Boolean (v,0)-semilattices with (v,0)-embeddings, can be lifted with respect to the $\Conc$ functor on lattices, then so can every diagram, indexed by a lattice, of finite distributive (v,0)-semilattices with (v,0-embeddings. If the premise of this statement held, this would solve in turn the (still open) problem whether every distributive algebraic lattice is isomorphic to the congruence lattice of a lattice. We also outline potential applications of the method to other functors, such as the $R\mapsto V(R)$ functor on von Neumann regular rings.