Stability conditions via spherical objects

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Abstract: An object in the bounded derived category D^b(Coh(X)) of coherent sheaves on a complex projective K3 surface X is spherical if it is rigid and simple. Although spherical objects form only a discrete set in the moduli stack of complexes, they determine much of the structure of X and D^b(Coh(X)). Here we show that a stability condition on D^b(Coh(X)) is determined by the stability of spherical objects.


Let \(X\) be a complex projective \(K3\) surface and \({\mathrm{D}}^b(X)\) its bounded derived category. A complex \(A\) in \({\mathrm{D}}^b(X)\) is called spherical if it is rigid and simple. Equivalently, the \(\mathrm{Ext}\)-algebra of \(A\) is isomorphic to the cohomology of the 2-dimensional sphere. For example, rigid stable vector bundles are spherical. If \(C\) is a smooth rational curve on \(X\), the structure sheaf \({\mathcal{O}}_C\) is also a spherical object. It is a natural question to wonder how many informations on the geometry of \(X\) can be retrieved from the set of spherical objects. The present paper considers this question in relation with stability conditions on the category \({\mathrm{D}}^b(X)\). Such conditions form a complex manifold \({\mathrm{Stab}}(X)\), which contains a distinguished connected component \(\Sigma\). \textit{T. Bridgeland} [Duke Math. J. 141, No. 2, 241--291 (2008; Zbl 1138.14022)] conjectured that \(\Sigma\) is simply connected and preserved by the action of the group of autoequivalences of \({\mathrm{D}}^b(X)\). Under this conjecture, one can completely describe such group. The goal of this paper is to show that the space of stability conditions can be studied purely in terms of a configuration of spherical objects. There is a natural action of the universal cover of \({\mathrm{Gl}}^+(2,\mathbb{R})\) on \({\mathrm{Stab}}(X)\). In particular \(\mathbb{R}^*\) acts by multiplication on the stability function. The main result of this paper states that two stability conditions \(\sigma\) and \(\sigma'\) in \(\Sigma\) are in the same \(\mathbb{R}^*\)-orbit if and only if for any spherical object \(A\) being \(\sigma\)-semistable of phase \(\phi\) is equivalent to be \(\sigma'\)-semistable of the same phase. In particular a new spherical metric \(d_S\) on \({\mathrm{Stab}}(X)\) is given, and, as a corollary, the author proves that the restriction to \(\Sigma\) gives identifies the standard metric of \(\mathrm{Stab}(X)\) with \(d_S\).











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