# Definition:Canonical Injection (Abstract Algebra)

## Definition

Let $\struct {S_1, \circ_1}$ and $\struct {S_2, \circ_2}$ be algebraic structures with identities $e_1, e_2$ respectively.

The following mappings:

$\inj_1: \struct {S_1, \circ_1} \to \struct {S_1, \circ_1} \times \struct {S_2, \circ_2}: \forall x \in S_1: \map {\inj_1} x = \tuple {x, e_2}$
$\inj_2: \struct {S_2, \circ_2} \to \struct {S_1, \circ_1} \times \struct {S_2, \circ_2}: \forall x \in S_2: \map {\inj_2} x = \tuple {e_1, x}$

are called the canonical injections.

### General Definition

Let $\struct {S_1, \circ_1}, \struct {S_2, \circ_2}, \dotsc, \struct {S_j, \circ_j}, \dotsc, \struct {S_n, \circ_n}$ be algebraic structures with identities $e_1, e_2, \dotsc, e_j, \dotsc, e_n$ respectively.

Then the canonical injection $\displaystyle \inj_j: \struct {S_j, \circ_j} \to \prod_{i \mathop = 1}^n \struct {S_i, \circ_i}$ is defined as:

$\map {\inj_j} x = \tuple {e_1, e_2, \dotsc, e_{j - 1}, x, e_{j + 1}, \dotsc, e_n}$

## Also known as

The canonical injections are also referred to by some sources as natural monomorphisms.