The Heisenberg category of a category

by Ádám Gyenge (Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics)

Wednesday 19 Oct 2022, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Magna (Department of Mathematics)

The Heisenberg algebra associated with a lattice is a much-investigated object originating in quantum theory. Khovanov introduced
recently a categorification of the infinite Heisenberg algebra
associated with the free boson or, equivalently, a rank 1 lattice,
using a graphical construction involving planar diagrams. We extend
Khovanov’s graphical construction to derived categories of smooth and
projective varieties or, more generally, to categories having a Serre
functor. In our case, the underlying lattice will be the (numerical)
Grothendieck group of the category. We also obtain a 2-representation
of our Heisenberg category on a categorical analogue of the Fock
space. Joint work with Clemens Koppensteiner and Timothy Logvinenko.