This note is mostly an exposition of an unpublished result of Deligne, which introduces an analogue of perverse $t$-structure on the derived category of coherent sheaves on a Noetherian scheme with a dualizing complex. Construction extends to the category of coherent sheaves equivariant under an action of an algebraic group; though proof of the general statement in this case does not require new ideas, it provides examples (such as sheaves on the nilpotent cone of a semi-simple group equivariant under the adjoint action) where construction of coherent "intersection cohomology" sheaves works.
Informal lecture notes with examples on sheaf theory and the derived category of sheaves; sheaves and Morse theory; perverse sheaves, and some applications to representation theory. Added Oct 2021: cellular perverse sheaves. Proofs are outlined with references for further details.
In characteristic zero, Bezrukavnikov has shown that the category of perverse coherent sheaves on the nilpotent cone of a simply connected semisimple algebraic group is quasi-hereditary, and that it is derived-equivalent to the category of (ordinary) coherent sheaves. We prove that graded versions of these results also hold in good positive characteristic.
Kapranov and schechtman gave quiver description of perverse sheaves on real hyperplane arrangements. We used this description to relate the perverse sheaves on Coxeter hyperplane arrangements of type $\mathcal A_n$ for different values of $n$. As a consequence we prove that the simple perverse sheaves whose stalk on open cells are zero are induced from the perverse sheaves on lower dimension arrangements.
The geometric Satake isomorphism is an equivalence between the categories of spherical perverse sheaves on affine Grassmanian and the category of representations of the Langlands dual group. We provide a similar description for derived categories of l-adic sheaves on an affine flag variety which are geometric counterparts of a maximal commutative subalgebra in the Iwahori Hecke algebra; of the anti-spherical module over this algebra; and of the space of Iwahori-invariant Whitakker functions.
We describe an analogue of the notion of a perverse sheaf in the setting of the derived category of coherent sheaves on an algebraic stack. Under strong additional assumptions the construction of coherent "intersection cohomology" complexes works. This paper supersedes the preprint arXiv:math/0005152 by the second author.
This paper is an introduction to the use of perverse sheaves with positive characteristic coefficients in modular representation theory. In the first part, we survey results relating singularities in finite and affine Schubert varieties and nilpotent cones to modular representations of reductive groups and their Weyl groups. The second part is a brief introduction to the theory of perverse sheaves with an emphasis on the case of positive characteristic and integral coefficients. In the final part, we provide some explicit examples of stalks of intersection cohomology complexes with integral or…
In this paper we develop the theory of perverse sheaves on Artin stacks continuing the study in "The six operations for sheaves on Artin stacks I: Finite Coefficients" and "The six operations for sheaves on Artin stacks II: Adic Coefficients" (math.AG/0512097 and math.AG/0603680)
We determine versal non-commutative deformations of some simple collections in the categories of perverse coherent sheaves arising from tilting generators for projective morphisms.
There is a connection between the category of perverse sheaves on a disc and different notions related to spherical functors. We introduce a category whose objects are analogous to 4-periodic semiorthogonal decompositions and prove that it is equivalent to the category of perverse sheaves on a disc stratified by the origin and its complement.
We study perverse coherent sheaves on the resolution of rational double points. As examples, we consider rational double points on 2-dimensional moduli spaces of stable sheaves on K3 and elliptic surfaces. Then we show that perverse coherent sheaves appears in the theory of Fourier-Mukai transforms. As an application, we generalize the Fourier-Mukai duality for K3 surfaces to our situation.
The purpose of this article is to set foundations for decomposition numbers of perverse sheaves, to give some methods to calculate them in simple cases, and to compute them concretely in two situations: for a simple (Kleinian) surface singularity, and for the closure of the minimal non-trivial orbit in a simple Lie algebra. This work has applications to modular representation theory, for Weyl groups using the nilpotent cone of the corresponding semisimple Lie algebra, and for reductive algebraic group schemes using the affine Grassmannian of the Langlands dual group.
In math.RT/0201073 we constructed an equivalence between the derived category of equivariant coherent sheaves on the cotangent bundle to the flag variety of a simple algebraic group and a (quotient of) the category of constructible sheaves on the affine flag variety of the Langlands dual group. Below we prove certain properties of this equivalence; provide a similar ``Langlands dual'' description for the category of equivariant coherent sheaves on the nilpotent cone; and deduce some conjectures by Lusztig and Ostrik.
Inspired by symplectic geometry and a microlocal characterizations of perverse (constructible) sheaves we consider an alternative definition of perverse coherent sheaves. We show that a coherent sheaf is perverse if and only if $RΓ_Z(\mathcal{F})$ is concentrated in degree 0 for special subvarieties Z of X. These subvarieties Z are analogs of Lagrangians in the symplectic case.
Microlocal perverse sheaves form a stack on the cotangent bundle of a complex manifold that is the analogue of the stack of perverse sheaves on the manifold itself. We give an embedding of the stack of microlocal perverse sheaves into a simpler stack on the cotangent bundle which we call melded Morse systems. The category of melded Morse systems is elementary, in the sense that an object is a collection of vector spaces and a collection of linear maps between them satisfying certain composition relations.
Motivated by the polynomial representation theory of the general linear group and the theory of symplectic singularities, we study a category of perverse sheaves with coefficients in a field $k$ on any affine unimodular hypertoric variety. Our main result is that this is a highest weight category whose Ringel dual is the corresponding category for the Gale dual hypertoric variety. On the way to proving our main result, we confirm a conjecture of Finkelberg-Kubrak in the case of hypertoric varieties. We also show that our category is equivalent to representations of a combinatorially-defined al…
We study perverse sheaves of categories their connections to classical algebraic geometry. We show how perverse sheaves of categories encode naturally derived categories of coherent sheaves on $\mathbb{P}^1$ bundles, semiorthogonal decompositions, and relate them to a recent proof of Segal that all autoequivalences of triangulated categories are spherical twists. Furthermore, we show that perverse sheaves of categories can be used to represent certain degenerate Calabi--Yau varieties.
The goal of this work is to construct a perverse t-structure on the infinity-category of l-adic LG-equivariant sheaves on the loop Lie algebra Lg and to show that the affine Grothendieck-Springer sheaf S is perverse. Moreover, S is an intermediate extension of its restriction to the locus of ``compact" elements with regular semi-simple reduction. Note that classical methods do not apply in our situation because LG and Lg are infinite-dimensional ind-schemes.
The aim of this paper is to identify a certain tensor category of perverse sheaves on the real loop Grassmannian of a real form $G_{\mathbb R}$ of a connected reductive complex algebraic group $G$ with the category of finite-dimensional representations of a connected reductive complex algebraic subgroup $\check H$ of the dual group $\check G$. The root system of $\check H$ is closely related to the restricted root system of the real form $G_{\mathbb R}$. The fact that $\check H$ is reductive implies that an interesting family of real algebraic maps satisfies the conclusion of the Decomposition…
We give a remark on the wall crossing behavior of perverse coherent sheaves on a blow-up and stability condition constructed by Toda. We also explain the wall crossing of twisted stability in terms of stability condition.
We analyze irreducible perverse sheaves on abelian varieties, defined over the complex numbers or the algebraic closure of a finite field, whose Euler characteristic is zero. We give a description of such perverse sheaves under assumptions for the case of simple abelian varieties.
We give a complete (global) characterization of complex perverse sheaves on semi-abelian varieties in terms of their cohomology jump loci. Our results generalize Schnell's work on perverse sheaves on complex abelian varieties, as well as Gabber-Loeser's results on perverse sheaves on complex affine tori. We apply our results to the study of cohomology jump loci of smooth quasi-projective varieties, to the topology of the Albanese map, and in the context of homological duality properties of complex algebraic varieties.
We give an explicit construction of the stack of microlocal perverse sheaves on the projective cotangent bundle of a complex manifold. Microlocal perverse sheaves will be represented as complexes of analytic ind-sheaves which have recently been studied by Kashiwara-Schapira. This description allows us to formulate the microlocal Riemann-Hilbert correspondance in order to establish an equivalence of stacks with the stack of regular holonomic microdifferential modules.
We revisit some of the basic results of generic vanishing theory, as pioneered by Green and Lazarsfeld, in the context of constructible sheaves. Using the language of perverse sheaves, we give new proofs of some of the basic results of this theory. Our approach is topological/arithmetic, and avoids Hodge theory.
We give a complete quiver description of the category of perverse sheaves on Hermitian symmetric spaces in types A and D, constructible with respect to the Schubert stratification. The calculation is microlocal, and uses the action of the Borel group to study the geometry of the conormal variety.
We show that there is a perverse sheaf on a fine moduli space of stable sheaves on a smooth projective Calabi-Yau 3-fold, which is locally the perverse sheaf of vanishing cycles for a local Chern-Simons functional, possibly after taking an etale Galois cover. This perverse sheaf lifts to a mixed Hodge module and gives us a cohomology theory which enables us to define the Gopakumar-Vafa invariants mathematically.
We survey nearby and vanishing cycles for both perverse sheaves and D-modules under analytic setting. Following ideas of A. Beilinson, M. Kashiwara and M. Saito, we explain in detail the proof of the comparison theorem between them in the sense of Riemann-Hilbert correspondence.
Under some assumptions we prove that the Deligne tensor product of categories of constructible perverse sheaves on pseudomanifolds X and Y is the category of constructible perverse sheaves on X\times Y. The Deligne external tensor product functor is identified with the geometrical external tensor product.
We characterize bifurcation values of polynomial functions by using the theory of perverse sheaves and their vanishing cycles. In particular, by introducing a method to compute the jumps of the Euler characteristics with compact support of their fibers, we confirm the conjecture of Némethi-Zaharia in many cases.
Let $G$ be an almost simple simply connected complex Lie group, and let $G/U_-$ be its base affine space. In this paper we formulate a conjecture, which provides a new geometric interpretation of the Macdonald polynomials associated to $G$ via perverse coherent sheaves on the scheme of formal arcs in the affinization of $G/U_-$. We prove our conjecture for $G=SL(N)$ using the so called Laumon resolution of the space of quasi-maps (using this resolution one can reformulate the statement so that only "usual" (not perverse) coherent sheaves are used). In the course of the proof we also give a $K$…
Using the theory of mixed perverse sheaves, we extend arguments on the Hodge conjecture initiated by Lefschetz and Griffiths to the case of the Tate conjecture, and show that the Tate conjecture for divisors is closely related to the de Rham conjecture for nonproper varieties, finiteness of the Tate-Shafarevich groups, and also to some conjectures in the analytic number theory.
We note that Theorem 5.4 of the paper ``Characteristic cycles of perverse sheaves and Milnor fibers" (by P. Nang and K. Takeuchi, published online in Math. Zeitschrift, October 15, 2004) holds for "any" non-zero complex number $a$.
The titular, foundational work of Beilinson not only gives a technique for gluing perverse sheaves but also implicitly contains constructions of the nearby and vanishing cycles functors of perverse sheaves. These constructions are completely elementary and show that these functors preserve perversity and respect Verdier duality on perverse sheaves. The work also defines a new, "maximal extension" functor, which is left mysterious aside from its role in the gluing theorem. In these notes, we present the complete details of all of these constructions and theorems.
We briefly introduce the theory of perverse sheaves with special attention to the topological situation where strata can have odd dimension. This is part of a project to use perverse sheaves on the topological reductive Borel-Serre compactification of a Hermitian locally symmetric space as a tool to study perverse sheaves on the Baily-Borel compactification, a projective algebraic variety. We sketch why the decomposition theorem holds for the natural map between the reductive Borel-Serre and the Baily-Borel compactifications. We demonstrate how to calculate extensions of simple perverse sheave…
It is shown that for a perverse sheaf $K$ on an abelian variety $X$ the integers $i$ for which the cohomology $H^i(X,K)$ does not vanish define an interval in the number line (under certain conditions on the field of definition of $K$)
We give a Tannakian description for categories of l-adic perverse sheaves on semiabelian varieties which combines a construction of Gabber and Loeser for algebraic tori with a generic vanishing theorem for the cohomology of constructible sheaves on abelian varieties. As an application we explain how the arising Tannaka groups on abelian varieties can be studied in terms of semiabelian degenerations via the functor of nearby cycles.
Let X be a scheme of finite type over a Noetherian base scheme S admitting a dualizing complex, and let U be an open subset whose complement has codimension at least 2. We extend the Deligne-Bezrukavnikov theory of perverse coherent sheaves by showing that a coherent middle extension (or intersection cohomology) functor from perverse sheaves on U to perverse sheaves on X may be defined for a much broader class of perversities than has previously been known. We also introduce a derived category version of the coherent middle extension functor. Under suitable hypotheses, we introduce a construct…
We consider categories of generalized perverse sheaves, with relaxed constructibility conditions, by means of the process of gluing $t$-structures and we exhibit explicit abelian categories defined in terms of standard sheaves categories which are equivalent to the former ones. In particular, we are able to realize perverse sheaves categories as non full abelian subcategories of the usual bounded complexes of sheaves categories. Our methods use induction on perversities. In this paper, we restrict ourselves to the two-strata case, but our results extend to the general case.
We show that there is a natural perverse sheaf on the moduli space of semistable sheaves on a smooth projective Calabi-Yau 3-fold which is locally the perverse sheaf of vanishing cycles for a local Chern-Simons functional. This gives us a cohomology theory whose Euler numbers are Donaldson-Thomas invariants.
It was proved by Ginzburg and Mirkovic-Vilonen that the $G(O)$-equivariant perverse sheaves on the affine grassmannian of a connected reductive group $G$ form a tensor category equivalent to the tensor category of finite dimensional representations of the dual group $G^\vee$. The proof use the Tannakian formalism. The purpose of this paper is to construct explicitely the action of $G^\vee$ on the global cohomology of a perverse sheaf.
For a stratified topological space we introduce the category of IC-modules, which are linear algebra devices with the relations described by the equation d^2=0. We prove that the category of (mixed) IC-modules is equivalent to the category of (mixed) perverse sheaves for flag varieties. As an application, we describe an algorithm calculating the quiver underlying the BGG category O for arbitrary simple Lie algebra, thus answering a question which goes back to I. M. Gelfand.
The notions of consistent pairs and consistent chains of t-structures are introduced. A theorem that two consistent chains of t-structures generate a distributive lattice is proven. The technique developed is then applied to the pairs of chains obtained from the standard t-structure on the derived category of coherent sheaves and the dual t-structure by means of the shift functor. This yields a family of t-structures whose hearts are known as perverse coherent sheaves.
In their article "Elementary construction of perverse sheaves", R.MacPherson and K. Vilonen show that on a Thom-Mather space X the category PervX of perverse sheaves is equivalent to the category C(F, G, T) whose objects are data of perverse sheaves on the complementary of the closed strata S, a local system on S and some gluing data. To show this equivalence of categories, they define a functor C going from the category PervX to the category C(F, G, T). This definition is based on the notion of perverse link. They do not define a quasi-inverse of this functor. moreover they have to consider f…
We consider non-commutative deformations of sheaves on algebraic varieties. We develop some tools to determine parameter algebras of versal non-commutative deformations for partial simple collections and the structure sheaves of smooth rational curves. We apply them to universal flopping contractions of length 2 and higher. We confirm Donovan-Wemyss conjecture in the case of deformations of Laufer's flops.
This paper begins the project of defining Arthur packets of all unipotent representations for the $p$-adic exceptional group $G_2$. Here we treat the most interesting case by defining and computing Arthur packets with component group $S_3$. We also show that the distributions attached to these packets are stable, subject to a hypothesis. This is done using a self-contained microlocal analysis of simple equivariant perverse sheaves on the moduli space of homogeneous cubics in two variables. In forthcoming work we will treat the remaining unipotent representations and their endoscopic classifica…
Constructible sheaves of abelian groups on a stratified space can be equivalently described in terms of representations of the exit-path category. In this work, we provide a similar presentation of the abelian category of perverse sheaves on a stratified surface in terms of representations of the so-called paracyclic category of the surface. The category models a hybrid exit-entrance behaviour with respect to chosen sectors of direction, placing it "in between" exit and entrance path categories. In particular, this perspective yields an intrinsic definition of perverse sheaves as an abelian ca…
