A faithful linear-categorical action of the mapping class group of a surface with boundary (Q2375898)

Bordered Heegaard--Floer homology is a topological invariant of \(3\)-manifolds with parametrized boundary, which has been developed by the authors in previous works. The paper under review shows that this invariant leads to a faithful action of the mapping class group on a finitely-generated triangulated category, and it also provides a combinatorial description of this action. To be slightly more specific, let \(F\) be a compact oriented surface with non-empty boundary \(\partial F\) and let \(MCG_0(F)\) denote the mapping class group of \(F\) relative to \(\partial F\). The authors introduce a finite-dimensional algebra \(\mathcal{B}(F)\) with coefficients in \(\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}\) (which depends on the choice of an ``arc diagram'' presentation of \(F\)), and they consider the bounded derived category \(\mathcal{D}(F):=\mathcal{D}^b\left(\mathcal{B}(F)-\mathsf{Mod}\right)\) associated to the category of finitely-generated \(\mathcal{B}(F)\)-modules. Besides, for each mapping class \(\phi:F \to F\) fixing \(\partial F\) pointwise, the authors construct an \(\mathcal{A}_\infty\)-bimodule \(N(\phi)\) over \(\mathcal{B}(F)\). The bimodule \(N(\phi)\) is a combinatorial version of (a summand of) a bimodule that the authors introduced in their previous work [Geom. Topol. 19, No. 2, 525--724 (2015; Zbl 1315.57036)] using pseudo-holomorphic curves. It follows from the results of this previous paper that \(N(\phi)\) is well-defined up to quasi-isomorphism, and that taking \(\mathcal{A}_\infty\)-tensor products with \(N(\phi)\) for \(\phi\in MCG_0(F)\) induces an action of the group \(MCG_0(F)\) on the category \(\mathcal{D}(F)\). This action is shown to be faithful using a geometric argument based on intersection numbers of arcs in the surface. It is also proved that \(\mathcal{D}(F)\) is generated by finitely many objects as a triangulated category. Therefore, the mapping class group \(MCG_0(F)\) is ``linear'' in a categorified sense. The relevant combinatorial constructions are explained without too many references to prior works, and they are illustrated by several examples. Thus the paper may also serve as a gentle introduction to the subject of bordered Heegaard--Floer homology.