Knot homology via derived categories of coherent sheaves. I: The \(\mathfrak{sl}(2)\)-case (Q925701)

This paper introduces and describes in full a cornerstone example of a weak categorification of tangle calculus. Such a categorification consists of 1) a series of categories \(D_n\); 2) an assignment of a functor \(\Psi(\alpha): D_n \to D_m\) to each \((n,m)\) tangle diagram \(\alpha\), so that \(\Psi(\alpha) \simeq \Psi(\beta)\) for diagrams \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) that represent isotopic tangles; 3) an assignment of a natural transformation of functors to each (combinatorial) cobordism of tangle diagrams, so that isotopic cobordisms correspond to the same natural transformation. The authors take the categories \(D_n\) to be triangulated categories \(D(Y_n)\), where \(Y_n\) are compactifications of Springer fibers over Slodowy slices at a \((n,n)\) nilpotent element in \(sl_{2n}\). They define the functors \(\Psi(\alpha)\) and natural transformations assigned to cobordisms explicitly, giving their Fourier-Mukai kernels and maps between those. The whole picture is graded by the action of \(C^*\) on all \(Y_n\). The authors show that the Grothendieck groups \(K(D_n)\) with this action are isomorphic to \(n\)th tensor powers of a standard representation of the quantum group \(U_q(sl_2)\), thus categorifying the tangle calculus associated with this representation [cf. \textit{N. Y. Reshetikhin, V. G. Turaev}, Commun. Math. Phys. 127, No. 1, 1--26 (1990; Zbl 0768.57003)]. The property 3), strictly speaking, holds in this picture only up to a scalar, but nevertheless it allows the authors to prove that the resulting link homology is isomorphic to Khovanov homology.