Relative Semi-abelian Categories

We define a relative semi-abelian category as a pair (C,E), where C is a pointed category with finite limits, and E is a class of regular epimorphisms in C satisfying certain conditions, stronger than those defining a relative homological category. Some results on the equivalence of the so-called old-style and new-style axioms for the semi-abelian categories are extended to the relative case. Partially supported by the University of Cape Town Research Associateship and Georgia National Science Foundation (GNSF/ST06/3-004).