We make an attempt to develop "noncommutative algebraic geometry" in which noncommutative affine schemes are in one-to-one correspondence with associative algebras.
In the first part we discuss various aspects of smoothness in affine noncommutative algebraic geometry. The main example for us is the noncommutative affine space. The algebra of functions on this space is free finitely generated algebra. We propose a general correspondence principle which allows us to give definitions of various differential-geometric structures in the noncommutative setting.
In the second part we propose a definition of noncommutative spaces based on a version of flat topology. Our category of noncommutative spaces contains as full subcategories both the category of quasi-compact separated schemes and the opposite category to the category of associative algebras.
In the third part we describe the noncommutative projective space and the derived category of coherent sheaves on it.
Raf Bocklandt and the author have proved in math.AG/0010030 that certain quotient varieties of representations of deformed preprojective algebras are coadjoint orbits for the necklace Lie algebra of the corresponding quiver. A conjectural ringtheoretical explanation of these results was given in terms of noncommutative smoothness in the sense of C. Procesi. In this paper we prove these conjectures. The main tool in the proof is the etale local description due to W. Crawley-Boevey in math.AG/0105247. Along the way we determine the smooth locus of the so called Marsden-Weinstein reductions for q…
This paper develops the tools of formal algebraic geometry in the setting of noncommutative manifolds, roughly ringed spaces locally modeled on the free associative algebra. We define a notion of noncommutative coordinate system, which is a principal bundle for an appropriate group of local coordinate changes. These bundles are shown to carry a natural flat connection with properties analogous to the classical Gelfand-Kazhdan structure. Every noncommutative manifold has an underlying smooth variety given by abelianization. A basic question is existence and uniqueness of noncommutative thickeni…
One of the major open problems in noncommutative algebraic geometry is the classification of noncommutative projective surfaces (or, slightly more generally, of noetherian connected graded domains of Gelfand-Kirillov dimension 3). Earlier work of the authors classified the connected graded noetherian subalgebras of Sklyanin algebras using a noncommutative analogue of blowing up. In order to understand other algebras birational to a Sklyanin algebra, one also needs a notion of blowing down. This is achieved in this paper, where we give a noncommutative analogue of Castelnuovo's classic theorem …
Divided into three parts, the first marks out enormous geometric issues with the notion of quasi-freenss of an algebra and seeks to replace this notion of formal smoothness with an approximation by means of a minimal unital commutative algebra's smoothness. The second part of this text is then, devoted to the approximating of properties of nc. schemes through the properties of two uniquely determined (classical) schemes estimating the nc. scheme in question in a maximal way from the inside and through the minimal scheme approximating the nc. scheme in question from the outside. The very brief …
In this note we relate the notions of Lefschetz type, decomposability, and isomorphism, on Chow motives with the notions of unit type, decomposability, and isomorphism, on noncommutative motives. Examples, counter-examples, and applications are also described.
In this paper we discuss different properties of noncommutative schemes over a field. We define a noncommutative scheme as a differential graded category of a special type. We study regularity, smoothness and properness for noncommutative schemes. Admissible subcategories of categories of perfect complexes on smooth projective schemes provide natural examples of smooth and proper noncommutative schemes that are called geometric noncommutative schemes. In this paper we show that the world of all geometric noncommutative schemes is closed under an operation of a gluing of differential graded cat…
Notes of three talks given at the workshop 'Hilbert schemes, non-commutative algebra and the McKay correspondence' CIRM-Luminy (France) October 2003. If A is an order over a central normal affine variety X having a stability structure such that the variety of all semi-stable A-representations is a smooth variety, then the corresponding moduli space is a partial desingularization of X and we have a complete classification of the remaining singularities.
We generalize Kuznetsov's theory of homological projective duality to the setting of noncommutative algebraic geometry. Simultaneously, we develop the theory over general base schemes, and remove the usual smoothness, properness, and transversality hypotheses.
Kontsevich and Rosenberg propose to study smooth noncommutative spaces by approximation at level n by representation spaces. In this note we make some comments about their proposal.
We give a sufficient condition for an Ext-finite triangulated category to be saturated. Saturatedness means that every contravariant cohomological functor of finite type to vector spaces is representable. The condition consists in existence of a strong generator. We prove that the bounded derived categories of coherent sheaves on smooth proper commutative and noncommutative varieties have strong generators, hence saturated. In contrast the similar category for a smooth compact analytic surface with no curves is not saturated.
A version of Kontsevich Formality theorem is proven for smooth DG algebras. As an application of this, it is proven that any quasiclassical datum of noncommutative unfolding of an isolated surface singularity can be quantized.
In this article, we propose a way of seeing the noncommutative tori in the category of noncommutative motives. As an algebra, the noncommutative torus is lack the smoothness property required to define a noncomutative motive. Thus, instead of working with the algebra, we work with the category of holomorphic bundles. It is known that these are related to the coherent sheaves of an elliptic curve. We describe the cyclic homology of the category of holomorphic bundle on a noncommutative torus. We then introduce a notion of (weak) t-structure in dg categories. By applying the t-structure to a non…
We develop a version of Hodge theory for a large class of smooth formally proper quotient stacks $X/G$ analogous to Hodge theory for smooth projective schemes. We show that the noncommutative Hodge-de Rham sequence for the category of equivariant coherent sheaves degenerates. This spectral sequence converges to the periodic cyclic homology, which we canonically identify with the topological equivariant K-theory of $X$ with respect to a maximal compact subgroup of $G$, equipping the latter with a canonical pure Hodge structure. We also establish Hodge-de Rham degeneration for categories of matr…
A noncommutative deformation of a quadric surface is usually described by a three-dimensional cubic Artin-Schelter regular algebra. In this paper we show that for such an algebra its bounded derived category embeds into the bounded derived category of a commutative deformation of the Hilbert scheme of two points on the quadric. This is the second example in support of a conjecture by Orlov. Based on this example, we formulate an infinitesimal version of the conjecture, and provide some evidence in the case of smooth projective surfaces.
On certain M-theory backgrounds which are a circle fibration over a smooth Calabi-Yau, the quantum theory of M2 branes can be studied in terms of the K-theoretic Donaldson-Thomas theory on the threefold. We extend this relation to noncommutative crepant resolutions. In this case the threefold develops a singularity and classical smooth geometry is replaced by the algebra of paths of a certain quiver. K-theoretic quantities on the quiver representation moduli space can be computed via toric localization and result in certain rational functions of the toric parameters. We discuss in particular t…
We develop a new framework for noncommutative differential geometry based on double derivations. This leads to the notion of moment map and of Hamiltonian reduction in noncommutative symplectic geometry. For any smooth associative algebra B, we define its noncommutative cotangent bundle T^*B, which is a basic example of noncommutative symplectic manifold. Applying Hamiltonian reduction to noncommutative cotangent bundles gives an interesting class of associative algebras, P=P(B), that includes preprojective algebras associated with quivers. Our formalism of noncommutative Hamiltonian reduction…
In this short note, making use of the recent theory of noncommutative mixed motives, we prove that the Voevodsky's mixed motive of a quadric fibration over a smooth curve is Kimura-finite.
In this article one extends the classical theory of (intermediate) Jacobians to the "noncommutative world". Concretely, one constructs a Q-linear additive Jacobian functor J(-) from the category of noncommutative Chow motives to the category of abelian varieties up to isogeny, with the following properties: (i) the first de Rham cohomology group of J(N) agrees with the subspace of the odd periodic cyclic homology of N which is generated by algebraic curves; (ii) the abelian variety J(perf(X)) (associated to the derived dg category perf(X) of a smooth projective scheme X) identifies with the un…
In this article we prove that the numerical Grothendieck group of every smooth proper dg category is invariant under primary field extensions, and also that the mod-n algebraic K-theory of every dg category is invariant under extensions of separably closed fields. As a byproduct, we obtain an extension of Suslin's rigidity theorem, as well as of Yagunov-Ostvaer's equivariant rigidity theorem, to singular varieties. Among other applications, we show that base-change along primary field extensions yields a faithfully flat morphism between noncommutative motivic Galois groups. Finally, along the …
A class of noncommutative spaces, named `soft noncommutative schemes via toric geometry', are constructed and the mathematical model for (dynamical/nonsolitonic, complex algebraic) D-branes on such a noncommutative space, following arXiv:0709.1515 [math.AG] (D(1)), is given. Any algebraic Calabi-Yau space that arises from a complete intersection in a smooth toric variety can embed as a commutative closed subscheme of some soft noncommutative scheme. Along the study, the notion of `soft noncommutative toric schemes' associated to a (simplicial, maximal cone of index $1$) fan, `invertible sheave…
We continue our study of the noncommutative algebraic and differential geometry of a particular class of deformations of toric varieties, focusing on aspects pertinent to the construction and enumeration of noncommutative instantons on these varieties. We develop a noncommutative version of twistor theory, which introduces a new example of a noncommutative four-sphere. We develop a braided version of the ADHM construction and show that it parametrizes a certain moduli space of framed torsion free sheaves on a noncommutative projective plane. We use these constructions to explicitly build insta…
A D-brane fantasy on noncommutative mirror symmetry, prelude: Noncommutative ringed spaces from local noncommutative crepant resolutions of a singular Calabi-Yau space, dynamical D-branes thereupon, and questions beyond
Let k be a base field of positive characteristic. Making use of topological periodic cyclic homology, we start by proving that the category of noncommutative numerical motives over k is abelian semi-simple, as conjectured by Kontsevich. Then, we establish a far-reaching noncommutative generalization of the Weil conjectures, originally proved by Dwork and Grothendieck. In the same vein, we establish a far-reaching noncommutative generalization of the cohomological interpretations of the Hasse-Weil zeta function, originally proven by Hesselholt. As a third main result, we prove that the numerica…
