Simple sheaves for knot conormals (Q2216139)

The paper studies knots in three-dimensional Euclidean space or the three-dimensional sphere using microlocal sheaf theory, which was developed by \textit{M. Kashiwara} and \textit{P. Schapira} [Sheaves on manifolds. Berlin etc.: Springer-Verlag (1990; Zbl 0709.18001)] . For a knot, the dg derived category microsupported in the conormal bundle to the knot has been proved to be an isotopy invariant of the knot thanks to the existence of sheaf quantization of Hamiltonian isotopies [\textit{S. Guillermou} et al., Duke Math. J. 161, No. 2, 201--245 (2012; Zbl 1242.53108)]. In the present paper, the author first classifies simple sheaves microsupported in a knot conormal. The classification is performed with so-called KCH (knot contact homology) representations. The recent sheaf-theoretic approach to contact geometry [\textit{L. Ng} et al., Geom. Topol. 24, No. 5, 2149--2286 (2020; Zbl 1457.53064)] revealed the relation between sheaves and augmentation, which is a morphism from the dga associated with a Legendrian to the trivial dga. On the other hand, when the Legendrian comes from a knot, KCH representations give a special type of augmentation [\textit{L. Ng}, Duke Math. J. 141, No. 2, 365--406 (2008; Zbl 1145.57010); \textit{C. R. Cornwell}, J. Topol. 7, No. 4, 1221--1242 (2014; Zbl 1312.57013); \textit{C. R. Cornwell}, J. Symplectic Geom. 15, No. 4, 983--1017 (2017; Zbl 1388.57004)]. The author proves this map from KCH representation to augmentation factors through simple sheaves, that is, a simple sheaf gives an augmentation and the assignment is compatible with the map from KCH representations. A bijection between augmentations and simple sheaves up to local systems is also obtained. The sheaf-augmentation correspondence explicitly describes what type of simple sheaves correspond to the special kinds of augmentations, and explains why KCH representations detect augmentations.