On \(A_{\infty }\)-enhancements for triangulated categories (Q2376588)

An \(A_\infty\)-category \(\mathcal{C}\) over a field \(K\) consists of a set of objects, a \(\mathbb{Z}\)-graded vector space \(\mathcal{C}(X,Y)\) for any two objects, and for any \(n\in \mathbb{N}\) a multilinear map \(m_n: \mathcal{C}(X_1,X_2)\otimes\ldots\otimes\mathcal{C}(X_n,X_{n+1})\to \mathcal{C}(X_1,X_{n+1})\) of degree \(2-n\) such that the collection of the \(m_n\) satisfies certain relations. In particular, \(m_1^2=0\), so it makes sense to take cohomology of the spaces of morphisms. Now, given such a \(\mathcal{C}\), we can construct a new \(A_\infty\)-category \(\widetilde{\mathcal{C} }\) by formally adding finite direct sums and shifts of objects in \(\mathcal{C}\). In the next step we construct the \(A_\infty\)-category \(\mathrm{Tw}(\mathcal{C})\) of so-called one-sided twisted complexes in \(\widetilde{\mathcal{C}}\). The category \(\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal{C}):=H^0(\mathrm{Tw}(\mathcal{C}))\), obtained by taking the zeroth cohomology of the morphism spaces in \(\mathrm{Tw}(\mathcal{C})\), is then triangulated. In this case, we call \(\mathrm{Tw}(\mathcal{C})\) an \(A_\infty\)-enhancement of the triangulated category \(\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal{C})\). The main result of the paper under review states that there exist (strictly unital, see the paper for this notion) \(A_\infty\)-categories \(\mathcal{C}\) and \(\mathcal{C}'\) such that there exists an isomorphism \(\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal{C})\cong \mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal{C}')\), but this isomorphism does not lift to an \(A_\infty\)-quasi-isomorphism between \(\mathrm{Tw}(\mathcal{C})\) and \(\mathrm{Tw}(\mathcal{C}')\). Hence, there exists a triangulated category whose \(A_\infty\)-enhancement is not unique. In fact, this can be used to show that there is also an example of categories as above such that an equivalence between \(\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal{C})\) and \(\mathrm{Tr}(\mathcal{C}')\) also does not lift to the \(A_\infty\)-level. The paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 the author recalls some facts in the theory of \(A_\infty\)-algebras and \(A_\infty\)-categories, while the following section is devoted to a detailed description of the construction, recalled above, of a triangulated category from an \(A_\infty\)-category. In Section 4 the first example is presented. Roughly, the main point here is to define twisted products in an \(A_\infty\)-category and use them to show that the triangulated categories are indeed isomorphic. In fact, these categories have only finitely many objects, but checking everything is quite a delicate and technical task. Section 5 describes how the first example can be used to produce the second one. The paper concludes with a short section giving some remarks.