Abstract tilting theory for quivers and related categories (Q2404192)

The paper under review is part of the authors' program to study representation theory from the point of view of stable homotopy theory. See [the authors, [J. Reine Angew. Math. 743, 29--90 (2018; Zbl 1403.18018)]; Adv. Math. 293, 856--941 (2016; Zbl 1345.55005)], and especially [the authors, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 220, No. 6, 2324--2363 (2016; Zbl 1337.55024)]. A \textit{reflection} of a quiver \(Q\) is a quiver \(Q'\) obtained by turning a source into a sink or vice versa. Using the reflection functors of \textit{I. N. Bernstein} et al. [Russ. Math. Surv. 28, No. 2, 17--32 (1973; Zbl 0279.08001)], Happel showed that for finite quivers without oriented cycles, a reflection between \(Q\) and \(Q'\) induces a triangulated equivalence \(D(kQ) \cong D(kQ')\) between derived categories, where \(kQ\) denotes the path algebra of \(Q\) over a field \(k\) [\textit{D. Happel}, Comment. Math. Helv. 62, 339--389 (1987; Zbl 0626.16008)]. The main result (Theorem~9.11) is as follows. Let \(C\) be a small category, with a finite family of chosen objects. Let \(C^-\) (resp. \(C^+\)) denote the category obtained by adjoining a source (resp. sink) to \(C\) along the chosen objects, so that \(C^+\) is a reflection of \(C^-\). Then \(C^-\) and \(C^+\) are \textit{strongly stably equivalent}. This means that for any stable derivator \(\mathcal{D}\), there is an equivalence of derivators \(\mathcal{D}^{C^-} \simeq \mathcal{D}^{C^+}\) of diagrams in \(\mathcal{D}\), which is suitably natural. Section~10 extracts some consequences of the main result for representation theory. Taking the derivator \(\mathcal{D}_k\) of a field \(k\) (i.e., the underlying derivator of the stable homotopy theory \(\mathrm{Ch}(k)\) of chain complexes of \(k\)-vector spaces) recovers Happel's result, in fact upgrades it to an equivalence of derivators \(\mathcal{D}_k^Q \simeq \mathcal{D}_k^{Q'}\). Another consequence is the authors' previous result on tilting theory for trees: two finite oriented trees \(T\) and \(T'\) that differ by a reorientation of the edges are strongly stably equivalent.