The cohomological Hall algebra of a surface and factorization cohomology (Q6064875)

Starting from a smooth algebraic surface \(S\), the authors define a structure of an associative algebra on the Borel-Moore homology of the (locally Artin) stack \(Coh(S)\) of properly supported coherent sheaves on \(S\). This is the so-called cohomological Hall algebra (COHA) of \(S\). The product is given by a certain correspondence, namely the stack of extensions (\S 2). The main technical difficulty, as it is customary in the subject, is the correct definition of the virtual pullback (\S 3), which depends on the natural derived structure on \(Coh(S)\). The second half of the paper is dedicated to the study of the subalgebra \(R(S)\) of COHA, which corresponds to sheaves on \(S\) with zero-dimensional support. The main result is Theorem 7.1.6, which computes the graded dimension of \(R(S)\). It is proven using factorization algebras techniques; this approach requires to refine the definition of COHA from Borel-Moore homology to the level of chain complexes. The theorem then reduces to the case of the affine plane \(S=\mathbb{C}^2\). Here, a slightly stronger result is proven, showing that \(R(\mathbb{C}^2)\) is a universal enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra (Theorem 6.1.4). The proof of this theorem crucially uses prior results of B. Davison on BPS Lie algebras of COHAs of preprojective algebras. Some examples of COHA actions are studied in \S 5; in particular, one obtains an action of \(R(S)\) on the Hilbert scheme of points on \(S\).