Subtractive Categories

We introduce a notion of a subtractive category. It generalizes the notion of a pointed subtractive variety of universal algebras in the sense of A. Ursini. Subtractive categories are closely related to Mal’tsev and additive categories: (i) a category C with finite limits is a Mal’tsev category if and only if for every object X in C the category Pt(X)=((X,1_X)↓(C↓X)) of “points over X” is subtractive; (ii) a pointed category C with finite limits is additive if and only if C is subtractive and half-additive.Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000) 18C99, 18E05, 08B05.