A representability theorem for some huge abelian categories

Abstract

We define quasi-locally presentable categories as big unions of a chain of coreflective subcategories that are locally presentable. Under appropriate hypotheses we prove a representability theorem for exact contravariant functors defined on a quasi-locally presentable category taking values in abelian groups. We show that the abelianization of a well generated triangulated category is quasi-locally presentable, and we obtain a new proof of the Brown representability theorem. Examples of functors that are not representable are also given.