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39 votes
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What is a triangle?

To answer your first precise questions: Yes, every distinguished triangle in $D(A)$ comes from a short exact sequence. For every distinguished triangle $X \to Y \to \mathrm{Cone}(f) \stackrel{+1}\to $...
Dan Petersen's user avatar
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31 votes
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What is the correct definition of localisation of a category?

Actually, both of these definitions look weird to me. I would say there are two natural ways to define the localization $C[S^{-1}]$ by a universal property, as follows. For any category $D$, let ${\...
Mike Shulman's user avatar
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25 votes
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Functorial kernel in derived category

Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a stable $\infty$-category. Then $\mathcal{C}$ has a homotopy category $h \mathcal{C}$, which is triangulated. The collection of morphisms $f: X \rightarrow Y$ of $\mathcal{C}$ ...
Jacob Lurie's user avatar
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22 votes
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Constructive homological algebra in HoTT

As regards HoTT, my own current opinion is that the best way to do "homological algebra" therein is by working directly with spectra. With only a working mathematician's knowledge of homological ...
Mike Shulman's user avatar
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22 votes
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idea and intuition behind triangulated category

It is risky to give a motivation for any concept in math and worse that of triangulated category that it is in a sense is a transitional concept form usual mathematics to mathematics up to homotopy. ...
Leo Alonso's user avatar
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20 votes
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Recovering an abelian category from the Ext of its simple objects

Here's a counterexample that appears in nature. Fix a prime $p$ and a field $k$ of characteristic $p$, and let $G=C_{p^{n}}$ be a cyclic group of order $p^{n}$ (where $n\geq1$ if $p$ is odd, and $n\...
Jeremy Rickard's user avatar
20 votes
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Is the functor from the unbounded derived category of coherent sheaves into the derived category of quasi-coherent sheaves fully faithful?

No, not always. In Positselski, Leonid; Schnürer, Olaf M., Unbounded derived categories of small and big modules: is the natural functor fully faithful?, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 225, No. 11, Article ID ...
Jeremy Rickard's user avatar
19 votes
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Why do we say IndCoh(X) is analogous to the set of distributions on X?

The connection is perhaps a bit more clear if you think about the corresponding $\infty$-categories of compact objects: the claim is that coherent sheaves behave like distributions while perfect ...
G. Stefanich's user avatar
17 votes
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Projective objects in the derived category of chain complexes

In a stable $\infty$-category, there are no nontrivial projectives. Of course, $0$ is always projective. Now let $X$ be an arbitrary projective in some stable $C$, $X\simeq\Sigma \Omega X$ is a ...
Maxime Ramzi's user avatar
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16 votes
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Splitting of exact triangles in derived category

In any triangulated category, the necessary and sufficient condition for a distinguished triangle $A\to B\to C\to A[1]$ to split is that the morphism $C\to A[1]$ in this distinguished triangle ...
Leonid Positselski's user avatar
16 votes

Poincare duality on the level of complexes

One way of finding a "fully derived" version of Poincaré duality is Atiyah duality. This says that for any closed manifold $M$ there is an equivalence of spectra (in the sense of algebraic topology) $$...
Denis Nardin's user avatar
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16 votes
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Derived categories and classical theorems in homological algebra

Your question might be compacted to someting like: Do I need derived categories to study cohomology of sheaves? Of course, the answer depends on your particular interests. Let me anyway give you some ...
Leo Alonso's user avatar
  • 9,229
16 votes

So what exactly are perverse sheaves anyway?

If you're looking for a more geometric interpretation of perverse sheaves, you might be interested in MacPherson's 1990 lecture notes "Intersection Homology and Perverse Sheaves." As far as I know, I ...
Greg Friedman's user avatar
15 votes
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Example of an additive functor admitting no right derived functor

Let ${\cal C}$ be the category of finite dimensional ${\bf Z}/2$-vector spaces equipped with a ${\bf Z}/2$ action, let ${\cal C'}$ be the category of finite dimensional ${\bf Z}/2$-vector spaces and ...
Yonatan Harpaz's user avatar
15 votes
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Derived Category of the derived critical locus, is it the category of Matrix Factorizations?

These are indeed related. The first thing to know is that they both ``live'' (i.e., sheafify) over the critical locus (this is not saying much if you assume $W$ has isolated critical points, but ...
G. Stefanich's user avatar
15 votes
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A concrete example of the deficiency of triangulated categories?

Since I have already given a similar answer recently, I don't want to be branded as the "anti-triangular" guy: the formalism of triangulated categories can be useful in certain settings. That said ...
Denis Nardin's user avatar
  • 16.5k
15 votes

Recovering an abelian category from the Ext of its simple objects

This will only be possible when the abelian category $C$ is "Koszul" or formal in some sense. What will always be true is that the bounded derived category $D^{b}(C)$ (with its $dg$ or ...
user1092847's user avatar
  • 1,347
14 votes

What is a triangle?

You really seem to be looking for intuition for the triangulated structures on derived categories of Abelian categories, so here goes: (Co-)chain complexes are like (Abelianised) pointed homotopy ...
Adrian Clough's user avatar
14 votes
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Different definition of sheaf cohomology

Taking global sections is the same thing as computing the hom from $O_X$. In other words, there is an isomorphism of functors $\Gamma(X,-)\cong\hom(O_X,-)$, so both functors have the same derived ...
Mariano Suárez-Álvarez's user avatar
14 votes
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Does formation of the derived $\infty$-category preserve pushouts?

A hands-on explanation: Relative tensor products like $B\otimes_AC$ are computed as the colimit of the simplicial object $B\otimes A^{\otimes \bullet} \otimes C$. The functor $\mathsf{Mod}_{(-)}: \...
Dylan Wilson's user avatar
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14 votes
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Why are the source-target rules of composition always strictly defined?

However, every definition I've seen for higher categories assumes that the source of a composite f;g is equal to the source of f (in diagrammatic notation) and the target of f;g is equal to that of g. ...
Dmitri Pavlov's user avatar
13 votes

What is the negative cyclic homology of a smooth projective variety?

There are conceptually simple definitions, but they require a more symmetric definition of Hochschild homology. The Hochschild homology of $X/k$ (with coefficients in $\mathcal O_X$) is the homology ...
Marc Hoyois's user avatar
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13 votes
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Embedding of a derived category into another derived category

Any fully faithful functor from $D^b(\mathcal{A})$ has adjoints (because $D^b(\mathcal{A})$ is a smooth and proper category), so its image is an admissible subcategory. A recent result from Dmitrii ...
Sasha's user avatar
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13 votes
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Computations in condensed mathematics, page 32-34

Correct, as both sides are the $S$-indexed direct sum of copies of $\mathbb{Z}$. For the LHS this holds by the universal property of $\mathbb{Z}[S]$, and for the RHS note that $C(S,\mathbb{Z}) = \...
Dustin Clausen's user avatar
12 votes
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Derived category of a quotient

What it is true is that $$ D^*(A/B) \simeq D^*(A)/D_B^*(A), $$ where the category $D_B^*(A)$ is the subcategory of $D^*(A)$ whose homologies lie in $B$. In general it may not agree with $D^*(B)$. ...
Leo Alonso's user avatar
  • 9,229
12 votes

Applications of derived categories to "Traditional Algebraic Geometry"

The global Torelli Theorem for cubic fourfolds says the following. Let $X_1 \subset \mathbb{P}^5$ and $X_2 \subset \mathbb{P}^5$ be smooth cubic fourfolds. The fourfolds $X_1$ and $X_2$ are ...
12 votes

So what exactly are perverse sheaves anyway?

After some searching I've found the notes An illustrated guide to perverse sheaves, by Geordie Williamson, which is a beautifully illustrated (and sort of topologically oriented) introduction to ...
Dat Minh Ha's user avatar
  • 1,516
12 votes

Are eigenvalues preserved under derived equivalence?

Let $A$ be the Nakayama algebra with Kupisch series [3,4], that is $A$ has quiver with two points 1 and 2 and an arrow $a$ from 1 to 2 and an arrow $b$ from 2 to 1 with relations $I=\langle aba\rangle$...
Mare's user avatar
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12 votes
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The derived category does not satisfy descent - example

Consider the canonical functor $H$ from the homotopy category of homotopy coherent descent data in the ∞-category of coherent sheaves to the category of descent data in the derived category of ...
Dmitri Pavlov's user avatar
12 votes
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When does derived tensor product commute with arbitrary products?

This is true with no noetherian hypotheses. Indeed, this condition implies that $X\otimes^L_R -$ commutes with all homotopy limits: it commutes with finite homotopy limits always (it commutes with ...
Maxime Ramzi's user avatar
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