The inverse problem of differential Galois theory over the field R(z)

We describe a Picard-Vessiot theory for differential fields with non algebraically closed fields of constants. As a technique for constructing and classifying Picard-Vessiot extensions, we develop a Galois descent theory. We utilize this theory to prove that every linear algebraic group $G$ over $\mathbb{R}$ occurs as a differential Galois group over $\mathbb{R}(z)$. The main ingredient of the proof is the Riemann-Hilbert correspondence for regular singular differential equations over $\mathbb{C}(z)$.Comment: 23 page

Higher Segal spaces I

This is the first paper in a series on new higher categorical structures called higher Segal spaces. For every d > 0, we introduce the notion of a d-Segal space which is a simplicial space satisfying locality conditions related to triangulations of cyclic polytopes of dimension d. In the case d=1, we recover Rezk's theory of Segal spaces. The present paper focuses on 2-Segal spaces. The starting point of the theory is the observation that Hall algebras, as previously studied, are only the shadow of a much richer structure governed by a system of higher coherences captured in the datum of a 2-Segal space. This 2-Segal space is given by Waldhausen's S-construction, a simplicial space familiar in algebraic K-theory. Other examples of 2-Segal spaces arise naturally in classical topics such as Hecke algebras, cyclic bar constructions, configuration spaces of flags, solutions of the pentagon equation, and mapping class groups.Comment: 221 page

Crossed simplicial groups and structured surfaces

We propose a generalization of the concept of a Ribbon graph suitable to provide combinatorial models for marked surfaces equipped with a G-structure. Our main insight is that the necessary combinatorics is neatly captured in the concept of a crossed simplicial group as introduced, independently, by Krasauskas and Fiedorowicz-Loday. In this context, Connes' cyclic category leads to Ribbon graphs while other crossed simplicial groups naturally yield different notions of structured graphs which model unoriented, N-spin, framed, etc, surfaces. Our main result is that structured graphs provide orbicell decompositions of the respective G-structured moduli spaces. As an application, we show how, building on our theory of 2-Segal spaces, the resulting theory can be used to construct categorified state sum invariants of G-structured surfaces.Comment: 86 pages, v2: revised versio

Triangulated surfaces in triangulated categories

For a triangulated category A with a 2-periodic dg-enhancement and a triangulated oriented marked surface S we introduce a dg-category F(S,A) parametrizing systems of exact triangles in A labelled by triangles of S. Our main result is that F(S,A) is independent on the choice of a triangulation of S up to essentially unique Morita equivalence. In particular, it admits a canonical action of the mapping class group. The proof is based on general properties of cyclic 2-Segal spaces. In the simplest case, where A is the category of 2-periodic complexes of vector spaces, F(S,A) turns out to be a purely topological model for the Fukaya category of the surface S. Therefore, our construction can be seen as implementing a 2-dimensional instance of Kontsevich's program on localizing the Fukaya category along a singular Lagrangian spine.Comment: 55 pages, v2: references added and typos corrected, v3: expanded version, comments welcom

Pushing forward matrix factorisations

We describe the pushforward of a matrix factorisation along a ring morphism in terms of an idempotent defined using relative Atiyah classes, and use this construction to study the convolution of kernels defining integral functors between categories of matrix factorisations. We give an elementary proof of a formula for the Chern character of the convolution generalising the Hirzebruch-Riemann-Roch formula of Polishchuk and Vaintrob.Comment: 43 pages, comments welcom

Isolated Hypersurface Singularities as Noncommutative Spaces

We study the category of matrix factorizations associated to the germ of an isolated hypersurface singularity. This category is shown to admit a compact generator which is given by the stabilization of the residue field. We deduce a quasi-equivalence between the category of matrix factorizations and the dg derived category of an explicitly computable dg algebra. Building on this result, we employ a variant of Toen\u27s derived Morita theory to identify continuous functors between matrix factorization categories as integral transforms. This enables us to calculate the Hochschild chain and cochain complexes of these categories. Finally, we give interpretations of the results of this thesis in terms of noncommutative geometry based on dg categories