Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2015
Using a suitable notion of principal G-bundle, defined relative to an arbitrary cartesian category, it is shown that principal bundles can be characterised as adjunctions that stably satisfy Frobenius reciprocity. The result extends from internal groups to internal groupoids. Since geometric morphisms can be described as certain adjunctions that are stably Frobenius, as an application it is proved that all geometric morphisms, from a localic topos to a bounded topos, can be characterised as principal bundles.