On geometric Bott-Chern formality and deformations (Q509581)

The theory of formality, developed by Sullivan, concerns differential-graded-algebras, namely graded algebras endowed with a derivation with square equal to 0. An immediate example is given by the space of differential (resp. complex) forms on a differentiable (resp. complex) manifold together with the exterior derivative. It is known that compact complex manifolds satisfying the \(\partial\overline{\partial}\)-lemma are formal in the sense of Sullivan. On the other hand, on a complex manifold \(X\), the double complex of bigraded forms is naturally defined. In this context, Neisendorfer and Taylor developed a formality theory for the Dolbeault complex on complex manifolds. In the present paper a more geometric notion of formality in the context of Bott-Chern and Aeppli cohomologies on a complex manifold is discussed. In particular, by using Aeppli-Bott-Chern-Massey triple products, it is proved that geometric Aeppli-Bott-Chern formality is not stable under small deformations of the complex structure. We recall that the Bott-Chern and the Aeppli cohomology groups of a complex manifold \(X\) are defined by \[ H^{\bullet,\bullet}_{BC}(X)=\frac{\text{Ker}\partial\cap\mathrm{Ker}\overline{\partial}}{\text{Im} \partial\overline{\partial}} \quad\text{and}\quad H^{\bullet,\bullet}_{A}(X)=\frac{\text{Ker}\partial\overline{\partial}}{\text{Im} \partial+\text{Im}\overline{\partial}}, \] respectively.