Formal deformations and their categorical general fibre (Q620538)

Given a formal deformation \(\mathcal{X} \rightarrow \text{Spf}(\mathbb{C}[[t]])\) of a smooth complex projective variety \(X\), the authors study the abelian and derived category of its general fibre. To be more precise, they define the abelian category of coherent sheaves \(\text{Coh}(\mathcal{X}_K)\) on the general fibre to be the quotient category \(\text{Coh}(\mathcal{X})/\text{Coh}(\mathcal{X})_0\), where \(\text{Coh}(\mathcal{X})_0\) is the category of coherent sheaves on \(\mathcal{X}\) which are torsion over \(\mathbb{C}[[t]]\). The notation is based on the fact that \(\text{Coh}(\mathcal{X}_K)\) is a \(K\)-linear category, where \(K\) is the quotient field of \(\mathbb{C}[[t]]\). The derived category \({\text D}^{\text b}(\mathcal{X}_K)\) of the general fibre is defined to be the Verdier quotient of the bounded derived category of the abelian category of \(\mathcal{O}_\mathcal{X}\)-modules with coherent cohomology by its full triangulated subcategory of complexes whose cohomology is contained in \(\text{Coh}(\mathcal{X})_0\). The main result of the paper states that if \(X\) is a smooth projective surface with trivial canonical bundle, then \({\text D}^{\text b}(\mathcal{X}_K)\) is a \(K\)-linear triangulated category and the square of the shift functor defines a Serre functor. Furthermore, there is a \(K\)-linear equivalence \({\text D}^{\text b}(\mathcal{X}_K)\cong {\text D}^{\text b}(\text{Coh}(\mathcal{X}_K))\). The main application is the following: Given a smooth projective K3 surface \(X\), any autoequivalence of the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves \({\text D}^{\text b}(X)\) induces an isomorphism of the total cohomology group \(H^*(X,\mathbb{Z})\) preserving a natural weight-2 Hodge structure and the lattice structure induced by the cup product. In particular, there exists a homomorphism of groups \(\rho\) between the group of autoequivalences of \({\text D}^{\text b}(X)\) and some orthogonal group of the total cohomology of \(X\). It was conjectured by Szendröi that the image of \(\rho\) are the isometries preserving the orientation of some 4-dimensional positive definite subspace of \(H^*(X,\mathbb{R})\). The authors proved this conjecture in [\textit{D.\ Huybrechts, E.\ Macrì} and \textit{P.\ Stellari}, Duke Math.\ J.\ 149, No.~3, 461--507 (2009; Zbl 1237.18008)] using a deformation argument: They studied a very special formal deformation of \(X\) and argued that the derived category of the general fibre of such a deformation (despite it being a \(\mathbb{C}[[t]]\)-linear and not a \(\mathbb{C}\)-linear category) has the same features as the derived category of a generic complex analytic K3 surface. For the latter ones, the conjecture had been previously proven [\textit{D.\ Huybrechts, E.\ Macrì} and \textit{P.\ Stellari}, Compos.\ Math.\ 144, No.~1, 134--162 (2008; Zbl 1152.14037)]. It should be noted that most of the technical results of the paper hold without the assumption that \(X\) is a surface with trivial canonical bundle. One such result is that the spaces of morphisms in the two above mentioned quotients are simply given by the tensor product with the quotient field \(K\). Another instance is the following statement: If the Fourier--Mukai kernel \(E_0\) of an equivalence \({\text D}^{\text b}(X)\cong {\text D}^{\text b}(X')\) deforms to a complex \(E\) on the product of the two respective formal deformations, then the restriction \(E_K\) to the general fibre defines an equivalence \({\text D}^{\text b}(\mathcal{X}_K)\cong {\text D}^{\text b}(\mathcal{X}'_K)\).