Witt groups of derived categories (Q1360323)

Let \(\mathcal D\) denote a triangulated category with a duality functor. Using the concept of octahedral diagrams introduced by \textit{A. A. Beilinson}, \textit{J. Bernstein} and \textit{P. Deligne} in ``Faisceaux pervers'' [Asterisque 100, 1-171 (1982; Zbl 0536.14011)] the author defines the notion of elementary cobordism between self-dual objects of \(\mathcal D\), which leads to the definition of the Witt group \(W(\mathcal D)\) of \(\mathcal D\) as the Grothendieck group of isomorphism classes of self-dual objects modulo elementary cobordism. It is shown that any cohomological functor from \(\mathcal D\) to an abelian category \(\mathcal A\) with compatible duality functor induces a homorphism of Witt groups. Assume now that in addition the triangulated category \(\mathcal D\) has a \(t\)-structure \(({\mathcal D}^{\leq 0},{\mathcal D}^{\geq 0})\) compatible with duality. Let \({\mathcal C} = {\mathcal D}^{\leq 0} \cap {\mathcal D}^{\geq 0}\) denote the heart of the \(t\)-category \(\mathcal D\). It is shown that the natural map \({\mathcal C} \rightarrow {\mathcal D}\) induces an isomorphism for the Witt groups. Provided that \(\mathcal C\) is Noetherian this shows that the Witt ring of \(\mathcal D\) is isomorphic to the free abelian group generated by the isomorphism classes of irreducible self-dual objects in \(\mathcal D\), a result which generalizes the work of \textit{S. E. Cappell} and \textit{J. L. Shaneson} on stratified spaces [cp. ``Stratifiable maps and topological invariants'', J. Am. Math. Soc. 4, No. 3, 521-551 (1991; Zbl 0746.32016)].