Categorical polynomial entropy (Q2020378)

The authors develop the basic theory of categorical polynomial entropy of an endofunctor of a triangulated category. Let \(\mathcal{D}\) be a triangulated category with a given split generator \(G\). Let \(F :\mathcal{D}\rightarrow \mathcal{D}\) be a (triangulated, not virtually zero) endofunctor. The categorical entropy of \(F\) is defined to be the function \(h_t(F): R\rightarrow [-\infty, \infty)\) in the real variable \(t\), given by \[h_t(F):=\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty } \frac{\log \delta _t(G,F^n(G))}{n},\] where \( \delta _t(G,F^n(G))\) is a certain positive number measuring the complexity of the image of a split generator \(G\) of \(\mathcal{D}\) under the \(n\)-th iteration of \(F\). The polynomial entropy of \(F\) is defined by \[h_t^{pol}(F):=\underset{n\rightarrow \infty }{\lim \sup }\frac{\log \delta _t(G,F^n(G))-nh_t(F)}{n}.\] Some basic properties of the categorical polynomial entropy function are given. The authors study the polynomial analogue of mass growth and compare it to the categorical polynomial entropy. Lower bound for categorical polynomial entropy and lower bound for polynomial mass growth are studied. They present a connection of the categorical theory developed so far to the classical setting. The categorical polynomial entropy function of the derived pullback functor is studied. As examples, the categorical polynomial entropy is computed. The polynomial entropy for tensoring a new line bundle is determined. The authors investigate the categorical polynomial entropy of autoequivalences of derived categories of smooth projective curves. Taking into account the Gromov-Yomdin-type equality for the categorical polynomial entropy, some new results are obtained.