The derived categories of toric varieties admit semi-orthogonal decompositions coming from wall-crossing in GIT. We prove that these decompositions satisfy a Jordan-Holder property: the subcategories that appear, and their multiplicities, are independent of the choices made.
For Calabi-Yau toric varieties wall-crossing instead gives derived equivalences and autoequivalences, and mirror symmetry relates these to monodromy around the GKZ discriminant locus. We formulate a conjecture equating intersection multiplicities in the discriminant with the multiplicities appearing in certain semi-orthogonal decompositions. We then prove this conjecture in some cases.
It is proved that the discriminant of $n\times n$ real symmetric matrices can be written as a sum of squares, where the number of summands equals the dimension of the space of $n$-variable spherical harmonics of degree $n$. The representation theory of the orthogonal group is applied to express the discriminant of three by three real symmetric matrices as a sum of five squares, and to show that it can not be written as the sum of less than five squares. It is proved that the discriminant of four by four real symmetric matrices can be written as a sum of seven squares. These improve results of …
We study the $A$-discriminant of toric varieties. We reduce its computation to the case of irreducible configurations and describe its behavior under specialization of some of the variables to zero. We prove a Gale dual characterization of dual defect toric varieties and deduce from it the classsification of such varieties in codimension less than or equal to four. This classification motivates a decomposition theorem which yields a sufficient condition for a toric variety to be dual defect. For codimension less than or equal to four, this condition is also necessary and we expect this to be t…
The configuration space of $n$ marked points on the complex plane is considered. We investigate a decomposition of this space by so-called Gauss-skizze i.e. a class of graphs being forests, introduced by Gauss. It is proved that this decomposition is a semi-algebraic topological stratification. It also forms a cell decomposition of the configuration space of $n$ marked points. Moreover, we prove that classical tools from deformation theory, ruled by a Maurer--Cartan equation, can be used only locally for Gauss-skizze. We prove that the deformation of the Gauss-skizze is governed by a Hamilton-…
We consider semi-orthogonal decompositions of derived categories for 3-dimensional projective varieties in the case when the varieties have ordinary double points.
We propose a conjecture on the existence of a specialization map for derived categories of smooth proper varieties modulo semi-orthogonal decompositions, and verify it for K3 surfaces and abelian varieties.
Motivated by the local flavor of several well-known semi-orthogonal decompositions in algebraic geometry, we introduce a technique called conservative descent, which shows that it is enough to establish these decompositions locally. The decompositions we have in mind are those for projectivized vector bundles and blow-ups, due to Orlov, and root stacks, due to Ishii and Ueda. Our technique simplifies the proofs of these decompositions and establishes them in greater generality for arbitrary algebraic stacks.
Let $C$ be a smooth complex projective curve of genus $g \,\geq\, 2$ and $C_d$ its $d$-fold symmetric product. In this paper, we study the question of semi-orthogonal decomposition of the derived category of $C_d$. This entails investigations of the canonical system on $C_d$, in particular its base locus.
We introduce preordered semi-orthogonal decompositions (psod-s) of dg-categories. We show that homotopy limits of dg-categories equipped with compatible psod-s carry a natural psod. This gives a way to glue semi-orthogonal decompositions along faithfully-flat covers, extending some results of [4]. As applications we will construct semi-orthogonal decompositions for root stacks of log pairs (X,D) where D is a (not necessarily simple) normal crossing divisors, generalizing results from [17] and [3]. Further we will compute the Kummer flat K-theory of general log pairs (X,D), generalizing earlier…
We construct a relative Chow-Kunneth decomposition for a conic bundle over a surface such that the middle projector gives the Prym variety of the associated double covering of the discriminant of the conic bundle. This gives a refinement (up to an isogeny) of Beauville's theorem on the relation between the intermediate Jacobian of the conic bundle and the Prym variety of the double covering.
We construct semi-orthogonal decompositions on triangulated categories of parabolic sheaves on certain kinds of logarithmic schemes. This provides a categorification of the decomposition theorems in Kummer flat K-theory due to Hagihara and Nizioł. Our techniques allow us to generalize Hagihara and Nizioł's results to a much larger class of invariants in addition to K-theory, and also to extend them to more general logarithmic stacks.
While every matrix admits a singular value decomposition, in which the terms are pairwise orthogonal in a strong sense, higher-order tensors typically do not admit such an orthogonal decomposition. Those that do have attracted attention from theoretical computer science and scientific computing. We complement this existing body of literature with an algebro-geometric analysis of the set of orthogonally decomposable tensors. More specifically, we prove that they form a real-algebraic variety defined by polynomials of degree at most four. The exact degrees, and the corresponding polynomials, are…
The nonexistence of semi-orthogonal decompositions in algebraic geometry is known to be governed by the base locus of the canonical bundle. We study another locus, namely the intersection of the base loci of line bundles that are isomorphic to the canonical bundle in the Néron-Severi group, and show that it also governs the nonexistence of semi-orthogonal decompositions. As an application by using algebraically moving techniques, we prove that the bounded derived category of the $i$-th symmetric product of a smooth projective curve $C$ has no nontrivial semi-orthogonal decompositions when the …
If G is a reductive group which acts on a linearized smooth scheme $X$ then we show that under suitable standard conditions the derived category of coherent sheaves of the corresponding GIT quotient stack $X^{ss}/G$ has a semi-orthogonal decomposition consisting of derived categories of coherent sheaves of rings on the categorical quotient $X^{ss}/\!/G$ which are locally of finite global dimension. One of the components of the decomposition is a certain non-commutative resolution of $X^{ss}/\!/G$ constructed earlier by the authors. As a concrete example we obtain in the case of odd Pfaffians a…
In this note we use results of Minamoto and Amiot, Iyama, Reiten to construct an embedding of the graded singularity category of certain graded Gorenstein algebras into the derived categories of coherent sheaves over its projective scheme. These graded algebras are constructed using the preprojective algebras of $d$-representation infinite algebras as defined by Herschend, Iyama and Oppermann. We relate this embedding to the construction of a semi-orthogonal decomposition of the derived category of coherent sheaves over the projective scheme of a Gorenstein algebra of parameter 1 described by …
The configuration space $\mathcal{C}^n(X)$ of an algebraic curve $X$ is the algebraic variety consisting of all $n$-point subsets $Q\subset X$. We describe the automorphisms of $\mathcal{C}^n(\mathbb{C})$, deduce that the (infinite dimensional) group Aut$\,\mathcal{C}^n(\mathbb{C})$ is solvable, and obtain an analog of the Mostow decomposition in this group. The Lie algebra and the Makar-Limanov invariant of $\mathcal{C}^n(\mathbb{C})$ are also computed. We obtain similar results for the level hypersurfaces of the discriminant, including its singular zero level. This is an extended version of …
We study categories of matrix factorizations. These categories are defined for any regular function on a suitable regular scheme. Our paper has two parts. In the first part we develop the foundations; for example we discuss derived direct and inverse image functors and dg enhancements. In the second part we prove that the category of matrix factorizations on the blowing-up of a suitable regular scheme X along a regular closed subscheme Y has a semi-orthogonal decomposition into admissible subcategories in terms of matrix factorizations on Y and X. This is the analog of a well-known theorem for…
A real symmetric tensor is orthogonally decomposable (or odeco) if it can be written as a linear combination of symmetric powers of $n$ vectors which form an orthonormal basis of $\mathbb R^n$. Motivated by the spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices, we study the properties of odeco tensors. We give a formula for all of the eigenvectors of an odeco tensor. Moreover, we formulate a set of polynomial equations that vanish on the odeco variety and we conjecture that these polynomials generate its prime ideal. We prove this conjecture in some cases and give strong evidence for its overall co…
We study orthogonal decompositions of symmetric and ordinary tensors using methods from linear algebra. For the field of real numbers we show that the sets of decomposable tensors can be defined be equations of degree 2. This gives a new proof of some of the results of Robeva and Boralevi et al. Orthogonal decompositions over the field of complex numbers had not been studied previously; we give an explicit description of the set of decomposable tensors using polynomial equalities and inequalities, and we begin a study of their closures. The main open problem that arises from this work is to ob…
We extend results of Cogolludo-Agustin and Libgober relating the Alexander polynomial of a plane curve $C$ with the Mordell--Weil rank of certain isotrivial families of jacobians over $\mathbf{P}^2$ of discriminant $C$. In the second part we introduce a height pairing on the $(2,3,6)$ quasi-toric decompositions of a plane curve. We use this pairing and the results in the first part of the paper to construct a pair of degree 12 curves with 30 cusps and Alexander polynomial $t^2-t+1$, but with distinct height pairing. We use the height pairing to show that these curves from a Zariski pair.
In the present note we suggest an affinization of a theorem by Kostrikin et.al. about the decomposition of some complex simple Lie algebras ${\cal G}$ into the algebraic sum of pairwise orthogonal Cartan subalgebras. We point out that the untwisted affine Kac-Moody algebras of types $A_{p^m-1}$ ($p$ prime, $m\geq 1$), $B_r, \, C_{2^m}, D_r,\, G_2,\, E_7,\, E_8$ can be decomposed into the algebraic sum of pairwise or\-tho\-go\-nal Heisenberg subalgebras. The $A_{p^m-1}$ and $G_2$ cases are discussed in great detail. Some possible applications of such decompositions are also discussed.
