Review on Homological algebra

and Derived categories

Seminar

University of Heidelberg
Department of Physics and Astronomy

Mendrit Latifi
Contents
1 Abstract 1

2 Category Theory 1
2.1 Triangulated Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3 Derived Categories 10
1 Abstract
The aim of this seminar is to introduce basics language of category theory and
to give a small introduction to the derived categories. At the end we will try to
give a relation to physics and for what this very abstract branch of mathematics
is used in modern physics. It is remarkable that something that was discovered
just as mathematical theory now is related to modern theoretical physics in
natural way.

2 Category Theory
A category consists of two things
• the one of sets and
• one of arrows

If the collection of arrows form a set, then the set is called homset and we write
Hom(A, B), where A and B are object on a category.
Now we will give a definition of a category in more formal way.

Definition 2.1 : A category C consists of the following data:

a) A class of Objects , elements on C we call objects

b) A collection of sets Hom(X, Y ), one for each pair X, Y ∈ ObC elements
of Hom(X, Y ) are morphisms denoted φ : X → Y
c) A collection of maps
φ : X → Y, ψ : Y → Y, then
Hom(X, Y ) × Hom(Y, Z) → Hom(X, Y )

These data should satisfy

1) Any morphism φ : X → Y, φ ∈ Hom(X, Y ) determines X, Y ∈ ObC

2) For any X ∈ ObC there is a idX : X → X determined by

(a) idX ◦ φ = φ
(b) ψ ◦ idX = ψ
3) Composition of morphism is associative
(ηψ)φ = η(ψφ)

1
 Some important categories that we might need later are :
1) Top; ObTop=topological spaces , Morphisms=continuous maps between
them
2) Diff ; ObDiff = C ∞ - maniflods , Morphisms = C ∞ -maps

3) Ab ; ObAb= abelian gorups , morphisms =morphisms between abelian

groups
4) T opX ; ObT opX = open subset of X , Morphisms = consiting the inclusion
U → V if V ⊂ U .

In the meantime we will recall a definition of sheaf .

Definition 2.2 Let X be a topological space . A presheaf F of abelian

groups on X consists of the data :
a) for every open subset U ⊆ X, an abelian group F(U ), and

b) for every inclusion V ⊆ U of open subsets of X, a morphism of abelian

groups ρU V : F(U ) → F(V )
subject of the conditions :

1) F(∅), where ∅ is the empty set,

2) ρU U is the identity map F(U ) → F(U ) , and
3) if W ⊆ V ⊆ U are three open subsets, then ρU W = ρV W ◦ ρU V

A presheaf F on a topological space X is a sheaf if it satisfies the following

supplementary conditions:

1) if U is an open set, ifVi in an open covering of U, and if s ∈ F(U ) is an

element such that ρU Vi = 0 for all i , then s = 0

2) if U is an open set, if Vi is an open covering of U, and if we have elements

si ∈ F(U ) for each i, with the property that for i, j , ρVi ∩Vj = sj |Vi ∩Vj ,
then there is an element s ∈ F(U ) such that s|Vi = si for each i.

Now that we have categories, we will define the "objects" that helps us to relate
categories i.e functor.
Definition 2.3 A functor F from a category C to D (F : C → D) consists
the following data :

a) A mapping ObC → ObD :x → F (x)

b) A mapping M or(C) → M or(D) ; φ → F (φ) such that for φ ∈ Hom(X, Y ) :
F (φ) ∈ Hom(F (X), F (Y ))

2
An example of functor is a presheaf of abelian groups on topological space X,
F : TopX → Ab.
Next we will continue to give a definition of additive and abelian categories,
since they play a central role in Homological algebra, but before going to the
definition we shortly mention what is a zero object in a category .
A zero object in a category is an Obj0 such that for any object B there is only
one morphism Hom(0, B) and one Hom(B, 0).
If zero object exists, then we define the zero morphism in Hom(A, B)as :
B→0→C .

Additive Category

a) has an zero object

b) Hom(B,C) is abelian group
c) such that distributive law (f + f 0 )g = f g + f 0 g and f (g + g 0 ) = f g + f g 0
is true for compositions between homsets

As an example of the zero object, for example for category of groups the
zero object is the trivial group, and for the category of sheaves the zero object
is the sheaf that associates the trivial group to every open set U.
Before defining the abelian categories it is useful to define the kernel of mor-
phism in the language of category theory. The "normal" definition is that a
kernel maps elements from a group to identity elements to another group, in
the category theory definition of a kernel would be .

The kernel of a morphism f : B → C is a morphism i : A → B such thath

f ◦ i = 0 and which satisfies the following "universal" property: for a morphism
e : A → B such that f ◦ e = 0 there is a unique morphism e0 : A → A such
thath e = i ◦ e0 .

A’
e’
e

A B C
i f

3
 The Cokernel of a morphism f : B → C is a morphism p : C → D such that
p ◦ f = 0 and which satisfies the following "universal" property. For any mor-
phism g : C → D0 such that g ◦ f = 0 there is a unique morphism g 0 : D → D0
such that g = f 0 ◦ p.

f p
B C D

g
g’

D’
Now that we have kernels and cokernels we can give a definition of abelian cat-
egory .

Since now we have the definition of kernel and cokernel we can give the def-
inition of abelian categories:

Definition2.4 An abelian category is an additive category such that follow-

ing axioms holds

4
 It is also useful to define what is a chain complex, since one of the definitions
of the derived category is based on chain complexes.
A chain complex C is :

• a collection of objects cn , n ∈ Z

• and of morphisms ∂n : Cn → Cn−1

∂3 ∂2 ∂1 ∂0 ∂−1
.... ....
C2 C1 C0 C−1
A homeomorphism of chain complexes is a chain map.Chain complexes with
a chain maps between them form a category of chain complexes Ch(C). Since
now we have the chain complexes, we can also give a definition about chain
maps:
A chain map : Let V0 and W0 ∈ Ch(A) be two chain complexes in some
ambient, say Abelian category.
A chain map f : V0 → W0 is a collection of maps(morphisms) fn : Vn → Wn
where n ∈ Z such that diagrams as below commute , i.e the relation fn ◦ dVn =
dW
n ◦ fn+1 .

dVn
Vn+1 Vn

fn+1 fn

Wn+1 Wn
dW
n

There are some other mathematical definitions that we would like to give,
which right now might sound without any meaning but it would be helpful to
know for the future.
Short exact sequences
A short exact sequence is a sequence of abelian groups in complex C 0 of the
form :

i p
O O A B C O

which satisfies the condition Im(i) = Ker(p) .

5
 Mapping cones
Let us start with T being the operator of shifting one place to the left and
changing the sign of the differential, where instead of T (X) we write X(1)

T (X 0 )P = X P +1

where dT (x) = −dx

If u : X 0 → Y 0 is any morphism between two objects in a category, then a
mapping cone Z 0 of u is defined to be the complex
 
• • T (dx ) t(u)
T (X ) ⊕ Y =
0 dy

So we defined the mapping cone to be a complex

... T (X n ) ⊕ Y n−1 T (X n+1 ) ⊕ Y n ...

with differential operator acting as column vector, for example

 
−dx T (u)
d(an+1 , bn ) = (an+1 , bn ) = (−dx an+1 + T (u)bn , dy bn )
0 dy

2.1 Triangulated Categories

Definition2.4 A triangulated category is an additive category together with :

a) an automorphism T : c → C, where T is translation operator

b) a collection of sixtuple (X, Y, Z, u, v, w) called triangle of C, where X, Y, Z ∈
C and u, v, w are the morphism u : X → Y , v : Y → Z and w : Z → X.

6
 Z

w v

X Y
u

X Y Z X[1]

The morphism of triangles can be expressed as following diagram :

u v w
X Y Z T(X)

f g h T(f)

u’ v’ w’
X’ Y’ Z’ T(X’)

These should satisfy following axioms :

id
X X 0 X[1]
(TR1)
Any morphism
u
X Y
can be completed to a distinguished triangle

7
 u v w
X Y Z X[1]

(TR2) A triangle is a triangle:

u v w
X Y Z X[1]

is a triangle if and only if the triangle :

v w −u[1]
Y Z X[1] Y[1]

(TR3) Given two triangles:

v v
X Y Z X[1]

g
f

X0 u0 v0 X0
Y0 Z0
and a morphisms f : X → X 0 and g : Y → Y 0 , we can find a morphism
h : Z → Z 0 such thath (f,g,h) is a morphism of a first triangle to the
second one.

8
(TR4) The octahedral axiom : Given the triangles :
1. (X,Y,Z’,u,j,...)
2. (Y,Z, X’, u,...,i)
3. (X,Z, Y’, uv, ...)
and morphism :
-u : X → Y
-v : Y → Z
-uv : X → Z
thus the exist a morphism f : Z → Y 0 and g : Y 0 → X 0 such that
(Z 0 , Y 0 , X 0 , f, g, T (j)i) is a triangle:

Y0

g
f

T (j)i X0
Z0

uv
X Z

j i

u v

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3 Derived Categories
In this section we will give a short definition of the derived category and con-
tinue with category of sheafs and Cech Cohmology.
To define derived categories, let’s start with an abelian category C, derived cat-
egory of C denoted by D(C) has objects constisting of complexes of objects of
C. These chain complexes we denote by ξ • .
A chain map between complexes is f, g : ξ • → F • such that all squares commute.

... ξ n−1 ξn ξ n+1

hn
f n , gn

...
F n−1 Fn F n+1
We define the chain homotopy from f to gas a set of maps hn such that from
above diagram we have:
fn − gn = dξn hn − hn+1 dξn

What we want to do is to induce a morphism in a set of chain maps modulo

chain homotopies.
Given a chain maps f : ξ • → F • , we induce a map f∗n : Homn (ξ • ) →
Homn (F • ), between the cohmologies of complexes.
A chain map f is called quasi-isomorphism if the induced maps f∗n are isomor-
phism for all n in the category C• .
If f is a quasi-isomorphism, we add another morphism f −1 to the derived cate-
gory such as f f −1 = identity.
Adding in all these inverse morphism finally constructs the derived category
D(C).
A presheaf : on topological space X consists :
• to an open set U ⊂ X we associate an abelian group F(U )
• If V is an open set V ⊂ U , the restriction map ρU V : F(U ) → F(V )

• F(∅) = 0
• ρU U is the identity map
• If W ⊂ V ⊂ U then ρU W = ρV W ρU V

10
 A sheaf is a presheaf if it satisfies two more conditions
• If U, V ∈ X where σ ∈ F(U ) and τ ∈ F(V ) then σU ∩V = τU ∩V
• If σ ∈ F(U ∪ V ) then σU ]σV = 0
Since we are trying to describe D-branes in categorial language, we might
need category of sheafs, and locally free sheafs.
An important sheaf is constructed by making F(U ) the group (under addition)
of holomorphics function over U. That is " sheaf of holomorphis functions" also
known as the structure sheaf and we denote it by Ox .
Category of Sheafs

• Sheafs on X form the objects

• morphism φ : F → G of sheaves
the morphism associates a homomorphism φ(U ) : F(U ) → G(U ) to each open
set U ∈ X such that for any V ∈ U the following diagram commutes, where
ρU V and ρ0U V are restriction maps.

φ(U )
F(U ) G(U )

ρU V ρ0U V

F(V ) G(V )
φ(V )
Locally free sheaves
Regular functions over U make Ox (U ) an abelian group under addition, multi-
plication gives U a ring structure.
We define the sheaf of Ox (U )-modules. ξ-sheaf such that ξ(U ) is Ox (U )-module
for any open set U ∈ X, where sheaf of Ox (U ) = Ox -module.
Since Ox is module, we may take a sum of copies Ox⊕n = Ox ⊕ Ox ⊕ ... ⊕ Ox
where this gives another Ox -module called free Ox -module.
We call ξ-locally free if for any open covering Ua of X ξ(Ua ) ∼
= Ox (Ua )⊕n

Category of locally free sheaves is not an abelian group, it contains all its
kernel but not cokernels. If we take category of locally free sheaves, add in all
cokernels together with morphisms between new objects and combining with
what we had until now, the resulting category is an abelian.
A subcategory of the category of Ox -modules containing locally free sheaves,
this is : category of coherent sheaves

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 Now suppose we have double complex E0p,q which we can represent as :
From this we can form a new complex

D D D D
0 E0 E1 E2 ...

(1)

En = E p,q where D = d + δ. The question is how to compute the

L
p+q=n
cohomology of equation (1).
p,q
The spectral sequence method is to form a sequence of stages Erp,q . Er+1 is
defined as the cohomology of the Er with respect to the differential dr : Erp,q →
p,q
p,q
Er+1 , where dd0 is given by d, and d1 is given by δ in Erp,q .
We won’t go more then r > 2 and we hope that for large enough r, the differential
dr is zero, which means that Erp,q ’s are independent of r and we write E∞ p,q
.
The cohomology of equation (1) is given by :
M
n p,q
HD = E∞ (2)
p+q=n

Now let’s try to use the spectral sequence to prove that Dolbeault cohomology
is equal to a particular example of Cech cohomology. We consider the sheaf
Am,n ofV(m, n)-forms on X, that is Am,n is the group differential sections of
m Vn
bundle Tx T̄x over open set U ∈ X. We can build the double complex
E0p,q = C P (U, Am,q )

12
 q

δ δ
C 0 U, Am,2


C 1 U, Am,2


C 2 U, Am,2

d d d

δ
δ
C 1 U, Am,1


C 0 U, Am,1


C 2 U, Am,1

d d d

δ δ

C 2 U, Am,0


C 1 U, Am,0


C 0 U, Am,0

p
Computing the cohomology under the vertical map, we know that for any q > 0
E0p,q = 0, so the only bottom line survives in the above diagram given be q = 0
i.e we have E01,0 = 0 , where we can represent in diagram form.

13
 q

0 0 0

δ δ
C 0 (U, Ωm ) C 1 (U, Ωm ) C 2 (U, Ωm )

p
m
Vm
where Ω (U ) is the holomorphic sections of Tx . Next what we have to do is
to compute the cohomology with respect to δ. For q = 0 E2p,q = H p (X, Ωm ) and
for q > 0 ,E2p,q = 0, where d2 = 0 since can not map between to zero entries,
while for r > 0 dr = 0, so we can write:
n
HD = H n (X, Ωm ) (3)

erp,q
We can exchange rows and columns to define another spectral sequence E
p,q p,q p,q
er → E p−r+1,q+r
e = E , with differential dr : E
with E0 0
e er and d0 = δ .
e
Consider the sequence :

0 Am,n (X) C 0 (U, Am,n ) C 1 (U, Am,n ) ...

(4)
Elements of the group Am,n (X) are globally defined (m, n)-forms. The exact-
e p,q stage of the spectral sequence looks like.
ness of (4) implies that the E 1

14
 Am,2 0
0
q

Am,1 0
0

Am,0 0 0

Cohomology is E e p,q = H m,n (X) = H n .

2 ∂ D
n
Comparing this to the equation HD = H n (X, Ω), we can conclude that:

H∂p,q (X, E) = H q (X, Ωq ⊗ ξ) (5)

where E is a vector bundle and ξ is a sheaf of E.

15
 Sheaf cohomology is equivalent to Čech cohomology

Given an Ox -module, F we construct an injective resolution:

...
0 F E0 E1 E2

Consider the double complex E0p,q = C p (U, E q )

From the first stage of the spectral sequence we have that, for q = 0, E1p,q =
C p (U, F q ) and zero otherwise, and E2p,q = E∞p,q
= H p (X, F q ) for q = 0 and
n
otherwise is zero. This allows us to conclude that HD = H n (X, F)
We may take the definition of sheaf cohomology a little further. The functor
Hom(ξ, −) is the left exact functor for any Ox -module ξ.We denote its right
derived functors by “Ext”:

Rn Hom(ξ, −)(F) = Extn (ξ, F) (6)

Ext0 (ξ, F) = Hom(ξ, F) (7)

Extn (ξ, F) = Homn (ξ, F) (8)

Let E and F be two vector bundles over X, sheaves of E and F are ξ and F, and
locally free sheaf of Hom(E, F ) is HOM (ξ, F)
- HOM (ξ, F) is a sheaf
- Hom(E, F ) is abelian groups for morphism from ξ to F
From equation H∂p,q (X, E) = H q (X, Ωp ⊗ ξ)

⇒ H 0,q (X, Hom(E, F )) = H q (X, HOM (ξ, F)) we conclude that Sheaf co-
homology is right-derived functor of global section

H q (X, HOM (ξ, F) = Extq (ξ, F).

Now we will try to use the mathematical theory to explain open strings, so
we start with open string comes from complex B-brane and goes to B-brane
that is locally free sheaf.
Suppose ξ 0 , ξ 1 , ξ 2 , ... are locally free sheaves and F too, and we want to consider
the open string ξ • → F. Suppose F as an injective resolution:
...
0 F I0 I1 I2

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 We construct the double complex E0p,q = Hom(ξ −p , I p ) with boundary maps
dξn .

dξ1 dξ0
q
... Hom ξ 0 , I 2


Hom ξ 1 , I 2

Q0 Q0

... dξ1 dξ0

Hom ξ 0 , I 1
1 1


Hom ξ , I

Q0 Q0

... dξ1
dξ0

Hom ξ 1 , I 0


Hom ξ 0 , I 0

(9)
Cohomology in the direction of Q0 gives the Hilbert space of open strings
Extq (ξ • , F)
If string starts on ξ and ends on a complex F • given by:

... dF
o dF
1
dF
2 ...
F 0 F1 F2

(10)
p
each F has an injective resolution

17
 ...
0 Fp F p,0 F p,1

(11)
any map between F p and F p+1 dF p
p :F →F
p+1
can be extended to a map
between resolutions

...
0 Fp F p,0 F p,1

dF
p

...
0 F p+1 F p+1,0 F p+1,1

(12)
So we build a single complex of injective objects F p,q

... ...
F n−1 Fn F n+1

(13)
M
F= F p,q (14)
p+q=n

If we apply Hom(ξ, −) we get Extn (ξ • , F • ) as the cohomology of induced

complex

... ...
Hom (ξ, F n )


Hom ξ, F n+1


Hom ξ, F n−1

(15)
We mentioned earlier quasi-isomorphism, now let’s se what are the quasi-
isomorphisms in the B-brane category. Since the category of locally free sheaves

18
is not abelian, we need a bigger category, let’s say the category of Ox -modules.
If you consider the double complex E0p,q = F p,q from equation (12) and if we
apply the spectral sequence construction, we get
(
p,0 F p , for q = 0.
E = (16)
0, for q > 0.

It follows that E2p,q = E∞

p,q
= H(F • ), so the total cohomology is H(F • )
The total cohomology of this double complex is, by construction, the cohomol-
ogy of the single combined complex given in (13).The means that the injective
resolution in (131) is equivalent to the statement that
... ...
Fn F n+1 F n+2

... ...
Fn F n+1 F n+2

is a quasi-isomorphism.

We also say that this quasi-isomorphism represents an injective resolution

of the complex F •
If we have a quasi-isomorphism between ξ • → F • , we may compose this to
(injective resolution)F • → J • which is clearly an injective resolution. Thus J •
represents an injective resolution for both ξ • and F • .
Suppose the abelian category C is such that all objects have an injective reso-
lution thus, for any complex F • we have a quasi-isomorphism F • → J • . where
J • . is a complex of injective objects. We can see that Hom(ξ • , F • ) is equal
to the set of chain maps from ξ • to J • modulo chain homotopies, where this
is exactly how we compute the Hilbert space of an open strings Hom(ξ • , F • ),
thus we could say that:
The category of B-branes is the derived category of locally free-
sheaves

19
 At the end we will give a physical meaning of axioms for triangulated cate-
gory as we labeled them TR1, TR2, TR3 and TR4.

(TR1) The existence of an open string from X to Y means that Z can potentially
decay into A and some other decay product C. This is not obvious but
this axiom may be rephrased after the following.
(TR2) If B can potentially decay into X and Z, then Z can potentially decay into
X[1] and Y. This is consistent with the observation that X[1] could be
interpreted as an anti-A. Note that using this axiom we may now rephrase
TR1 as follows. Given an open string from X to Y we may potentially
form a bound state of these two D-branes.

(TR3) Given open strings between D-branes X and X’ and between B and B’, we
may construct open strings between corresponding bound states
(TR4) The octahedral axiom specifies that, given Z, Y’, X, Z’, X’ and the solid
arrows in the octahedron, there is an object Y such that the octahedron
may be completed with the dashed arrows. The pairs of maps that combine
to form maps between Y and Y’ also commute. Using TR2 the TR4 can
be read as
X = Y [uv] + Y 0
= Z[uv] + (X 0 + Z[−f ])
= (Z[uv] + X 0 ) + Z[−f ]
= Y + Z[−f ]

20
References
[1] Y. M. Sergei Gelfand, Ed., Methods of Homological Algebra. Springer.
[2] R. Hartshorne, Residues and Duality. Springer.

[3] ——, Algebraic Geometry. Springer.

[4] P. S. Masaki Kashiwara, Categories and Sheaves. Springer.
[5] J. MAY, “Derived categories from a topological point of view,”
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/216c/f8b9e8c0df58cf2fbe7bf387ed58a94cd40f.pdf.

[6] B. M. Keller, “Derived categories and their uses,” 1996.

[7] E. Sharpe, “Lectures on d-branes and sheaves,” arXiv preprint hep-
th/0307245, 2003.
[8] E. Witten, “Mirror manifolds and topological field theory,” arXiv preprint
hep-th/9112056, 1991.
[9] M. Kontsevich, “Homological algebra of mirror symmetry,” in Proceedings of
the international congress of mathematicians. Springer, 1995, pp. 120–139.

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