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Tag: noncommutative

Borcherds’ monster papers


Yesterday morning I thought that I could use some discussions I had a
week before with Markus Reineke to begin to make sense of one
sentence in Kontsevich’ Arbeitstagung talk Non-commutative smooth
spaces :

It seems plausible that Borcherds’ infinite rank
algebras with Monstrous symmetry can be realized inside Hall-Ringel
algebras for some small smooth noncommutative
spaces

However, as I’m running on a 68K RAM-memory, I
didn’t recall the fine details of all connections between the monster,
moonshine, vertex algebras and the like. Fortunately, there is the vast
amount of knowledge buried in the arXiv and a quick search on Borcherds gave me a
list of 17 papers. Among
these there are some delightful short (3 to 8 pages) expository papers
that gave me a quick recap on things I once must have read but forgot.
Moreover, Richard Borcherds has the gift of writing at the same time
readable and informative papers. If you want to get to the essence of
things in 15 minutes I can recommend What
is a vertex algebra?
(“The answer to the question in the title is
that a vertex algebra is really a sort of commutative ring.”), What
is moonshine?
(“At the time he discovered these relations, several
people thought it so unlikely that there could be a relation between the
monster and the elliptic modular function that they politely told McKay
that he was talking nonsense.”) and What
is the monster?
(“3. It is the automorphism group of the monster
vertex algebra. (This is probably the best answer.)”). Borcherds
maintains also his homepage on which I found a few more (longer)
expository papers : Problems in moonshine and Automorphic forms and Lie algebras. After these
preliminaries it was time for the real goodies such as The
fake monster formal group
, Quantum vertex algebras and the like.
After a day of enjoyable reading I think I’m again ‘a point’
wrt. vertex algebras. Unfortunately, I completely forgot what all this
could have to do with Kontsevich’ remark…

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projects in noncommutative geometry

Tomorrow
I’ll start with the course Projects in non-commutative geometry
in our masterclass. The idea of this course (and its companion
Projects in non-commutative algebra run by Fred Van Oystaeyen) is
that students should make a small (original if possible) work, that may
eventually lead to a publication.
At this moment the students
have seen the following : definition and examples of quasi-free algebras
(aka formally smooth algebras, non-commutative curves), their
representation varieties, their connected component semigroup and the
Euler-form on it. Last week, Markus Reineke used all this in his mini-course
Rational points of varieties associated to quasi-free
algebras
. In it, Markus gave a method to compute (at least in
principle) the number of points of the non-commutative Hilbert
scheme
and the varieties of simple representations over a
finite field. Here, in principle means that Markus demands a lot of
knowledge in advance : the number of points of all connected components
of all representation schemes of the algebra as well as of its scalar
extensions over finite field extensions, together with the action of the
Galois group on them … Sadly, I do not know too many examples were all
this information is known (apart from path algebras of quivers).
Therefore, it seems like a good idea to run through Markus’
calculations in some specific examples were I think one can get all this
: free products of semi-simple algebras. The motivating examples
being the groupalgebra of the (projective) modular group
PSL(2,Z) = Z(2) * Z(3) and the free matrix-products $M(n,F_q) *
M(m,F_q)$. I will explain how one begins to compute things in these
examples and will also explain how to get the One
quiver to rule them all
in these cases. It would be interesting to
compare the calculations we will find with those corresponding to the
path algebra of this one quiver.
As Markus set the good
example of writing out his notes and posting them, I will try to do the
same for my previous two sessions on quasi-free algebras over the next
couple of weeks.

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noncommutative geometry 2

Again I
spend the whole morning preparing my talks for tomorrow in the master
class. Here is an outline of what I will cover :
– examples of
noncommutative points and curves. Grothendieck’s characterization of
commutative regular algebras by the lifting property and a proof that
this lifting property in the category alg of all l-algebras is
equivalent to being a noncommutative curve (using the construction of a
generic square-zero extension).
– definition of the affine
scheme rep(n,A) of all n-dimensional representations (as always,
l is still arbitrary) and a proof that these schemes are smooth
using the universal property of k(rep(n,A)) (via generic
matrices).
– whereas rep(n,A) is smooth it is in general
a disjoint union of its irreducible components and one can use the
sum-map to define a semigroup structure on these components when
l is algebraically closed. I’ll give some examples of this
semigroup and outline how the construction can be extended over
arbitrary basefields (via a cocommutative coalgebra).

definition of the Euler-form on rep A, all finite dimensional
representations. Outline of the main steps involved in showing that the
Euler-form defines a bilinear form on the connected component semigroup
when l is algebraically closed (using Jordan-Holder sequences and
upper-semicontinuity results).

After tomorrow’s
lectures I hope you are prepared for the mini-course by Markus Reineke on non-commutative Hilbert schemes
next week.

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noncommutative geometry

Today I
did prepare my lectures for tomorrow for the NOG master-class on
non-commutative geometry. I\’m still doubting whether it is worth TeXing
my handwritten notes. Anyway, here is what I will cover tomorrow :

– Examples of l-algebras (btw. l is an
arbitrary field) : matrix-algebras, group-algebras lG of finite
groups, polynomial algebras, free and tensor-algebras, path algebras
lQ of a finite quiver, coordinaterings O(C) of affine smooth
curves C etc.
– Refresher on homological algebra : free and
projective modules, exact sequences and complexes, Hom and Ext groups
and how to calculate them from projective resolutions, interpretation of
Ext^1 via (non-split) short exact sequences and stuff like that.
– Hochschild cohomology and noncommutative differential forms.
Bimodules and their Hochschild cohomology, standard complex and
connection with differential forms, universal bimodule of derivations
etc.
– Non-commutative manifolds. Interpretation of low degree
Hochschild cohomology, characterization of non-commutative points as
separable l-algebras and examples. Formally smooth algebras
(non-commutative curves) characterised by the lifting property for
square-free extensions and a proof that formally smooth algebras are
hereditary.

Next week I will cover the representation
varieties of formally smooth algebras and the semigroup on their
connected (or irreducible) components.

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a noncommutative Grothendieck topology

We have seen that a non-commutative $l$-point is an
algebra$P=S_1 \\oplus … \\oplus S_k$with each $S_i$ a simple
finite dimensional $l$-algebra with center $L_i$ which is a separable
extension of $l$. The centers of these non-commutative points (that is
the algebras $L_1 \\oplus … \\oplus L_k$) are the open sets of a
Grothendieck-topology on
$l$. To define it properly, let $L$ be the separable closure of $l$
and let $G=Gal(L/l)$ be the so called absolute
Galois group. Consider the
category with objects the finite $G$-sets, that is : finite
sets with an action of $G$, and with morphisms the $G$-equivariant
set-maps, that is: maps respecting the group action. For each object
$V$ we call a finite collection of morphisms $Vi \\mapsto V$ a
cover of $V$ if the images of the finite number of $Vi$ is all
of $V$. Let $Cov$ be the set of all covers of finite $G$-sets, then
this is an example of a Grothendieck-topology as it satisfies
the following three conditions :

(GT1) : If
$W \\mapsto V$ is an isomorphism of $G$-sets, then $\\{ W \\mapsto
V \\}$ is an element of $Cov$.

(GT2) : If $\\{ Vi \\mapsto
V \\}$ is in $Cov$ and if for every i also $\\{ Wij \\mapsto Vi \\}$
is in $Cov$, then the collection $\\{ Wij \\mapsto V \\}$ is in
$Cov$.

(GT3) : If $\\{ fi : Vi \\mapsto V \\}$ is in $Cov$
and $g : W \\mapsto V$ is a $G$-morphism, then the fibered
products
$Vi x_V W = \\{ (vi,w) in Vi x W : fi(vi)=g(w) \\}$is
again a $G$-set and the collection $\\{ Vi x_V W \\mapsto V \\}$
is in $Cov$.

Now, finite $G$-sets are just
commutative separable $l$-algebras (that is,
commutative $l$-points). To see this, decompose a
finite $G$-set into its finitely many orbits $Oj$ and let $Hj$ be the
stabilizer subgroup of an element in $Oj$, then $Hj$ is of finite
index in $G$ and the fixed field $L^Hj$ is a finite dimensional
separable field extension of $l$. So, a finite $G$-set $V$
corresponds uniquely to a separable $l$-algebra $S(V)$. Moreover, a
finite cover $\\{ W \\mapsto V \\}$ is the same thing as saying
that $S(W)$ is a commutative separable $S(V)$-algebra. Thus,
the Grothendieck topology of finite $G$-sets and their covers
is anti-equivalent to the category of commutative separable
$l$-algebras and their separable commutative extensions.

This raises the natural question : what happens if we extend the
category to all separable $l$-algebras, that is, the category of
non-commutative $l$-points, do we still obtain something like a
Grothendieck topology? Or do we get something like a
non-commutative Grothendieck topology as defined by Fred Van
Oystaeyen (essentially replacing the axiom (GT 3) by a left and right
version). And if so, what are the non-commutative covers?
Clearly, if $S(V)$ is a commutative separable $l$-algebras, we expect
these non-commutative covers to be the set of all separable
$S(V)$-algebras, but what are they if $S$ is itself non-commutative,
that is, if $S$ is a non-commutative $l$-point?

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connected component coalgebra


Never thought that I would ever consider Galois descent of semigroup
coalgebras
but in preparing for my talks for the master-class it
came about naturally. Let A be a formally smooth algebra
(sometimes called a quasi-free algebra, I prefer the terminology
noncommutative curve) over an arbitrary base-field k. What, if
anything, can be said about the connected components of the affine
k-schemes rep(n,A) of n-dimensional representations
of A? If k is algebraically closed, then one can put a
commutative semigroup structure on the connected components induced by
the sum map

rep(n,A) x rep(m,A) -> rep(n + m,A)   :  (M,N)
-> M + N

as introduced and studied by Kent
Morrison
a long while ago. So what would be a natural substitute for
this if k is arbitrary? Well, define pi(n) to be the
maximal unramified sub k-algebra of k(rep(n,A)),
the coordinate ring of rep(n,A), then corresponding to the
sum-map above is a map

pi(n + m) -> pi(n) \\otimes
pi(m)

and these maps define on the graded
space

Pi(A) = pi(0) + pi(1) + pi(2) + ...

the
structure of a graded commutative k-coalgebra with
comultiplication

pi(n) -> sum(a + b=n) pi(a) \\otimes
pi(b)

The relevance of Pi(A) is that if we consider it
over the algebraic closure K of k we get the semigroup
coalgebra

K G  with  g -> sum(h.h\' = g) h \\otimes
h\'

where G is Morrison\’s connected component
semigroup. That is, Pi(A) is a k-form of this semigroup
coalgebra. Perhaps it is a good project for one of the students to work
this out in detail (and correct possible mistakes I made) and give some
concrete examples for formally smooth algebras A. If you know of
a reference on this, please let me know.

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NOG master class


Yesterday I made reservations for lecture rooms to run the
master class on non-commutative geometry sponsored by the ESF-NOG project. We have a lecture room on
monday- and wednesday afternoon and friday the whole day which should be
enough. I will run two courses in the program : non-commutative
geometry
and projects in non-commutative geometry both 30
hours. I hope that Raf Bocklandt will do most of the work on the
Geometric invariant theory course so that my contribution to it
can be minimal. Here are the first ideas of topics I want to cover in my
courses. As always, all suggestions are wellcome (just add a
comment).

non-commutative geometry : As
I am running this course jointly with Markus Reineke and as Markus will give a
mini-course on his work on non-commutative Hilbert schemes, I will explain
the theory of formally smooth algebras. I will cover most of the
paper by Joachim Cuntz and Daniel Quillen “Algebra extensions and
nonsingularity”, Journal of AMS, v.8, no. 2, 1995, 251?289. Further,
I’ll do the first section of the paper by Alexander Rosenberg and Maxim Kontsevich,
Noncommutative smooth spaces“. Then, I will
explain some of my own work including the “One
quiver to rule them all
” paper and my recent attempts to classify
all formally smooth algebras up to non-commutative birational
equivalence. When dealing with the last topic I will explain some of Aidan Schofield‘s paper
Birational classification of moduli spaces of representations of quivers“.

projects in
non-commutative geometry
: This is one of the two courses (the other
being “projects in non-commutative algebra” run by Fred Van Oystaeyen)
for which the students have to write a paper so I will take as the topic
of my talks the application of non-commutative geometry (in particular
the theory of orders in central simple algebras) to the resolution of
commutative singularities and ask the students to carry out the detailed
analysis for one of the following important classes of examples :
quantum groups at roots of unity, deformed preprojective algebras or
symplectic reflexion algebras. I will explain in much more detail three talks I gave on the subject last fall in
Luminy. But I will begin with more background material on central simple
algebras and orders.

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