Geometry and categorification

We describe a number of geometric contexts where categorification appears naturally: coherent sheaves, constructible sheaves and sheaves of modules over quantizations. In each case, we discuss how "index formulas" allow us to easily perform categorical calculations, and readily relate classical constructions of geometric representation theory to categorical ones.Comment: 23 pages. an expository article to appear in "Perspectives on Categorification.

Unfurling Khovanov-Lauda-Rouquier algebras

In this paper, we study the behavior of categorical actions of a Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ under the deformation of their spectra. We give conditions under which the general point of a family of categorical actions of $\mathfrak{g}$ carry an action of a larger Lie algebra $\mathfrak{\tilde{g}}$, which we call an {\bf unfurling} of $\mathfrak{g}$. This is closely related to the folding of Dynkin diagrams, but to avoid confusion, we think it is better to use a different term. Our motivation for studying this topic is the difficulty of proving that explicitly presented algebras and categories in the theory of higher representation theory have the "expected size." Deformation is a powerful technique for showing this because of the upper semicontinuity of dimension under deformation. In particular, we'll use this to show the non-degeneracy (in the sense of Khovanov-Lauda) of the 2-quantum group $\mathcal U$ for an arbitrary Cartan datum and any homogeneous choice of parameters.Comment: 32 pages; v2: added a more direct argument for sl_2 relations in deformed category (Thm. 3.13

Knot invariants and higher representation theory

We construct knot invariants categorifying the quantum knot variants for all representations of quantum groups. We show that these invariants coincide with previous invariants defined by Khovanov for sl_2 and sl_3 and by Mazorchuk-Stroppel and Sussan for sl_n. Our technique is to study 2-representations of 2-quantum groups (in the sense of Rouquier and Khovanov-Lauda) categorifying tensor products of irreducible representations. These are the representation categories of certain finite dimensional algebras with an explicit diagrammatic presentation, generalizing the cyclotomic quotient of the KLR algebra. When the Lie algebra under consideration is $\mathfrak{sl}_n$, we show that these categories agree with certain subcategories of parabolic category O for gl_k. We also investigate the finer structure of these categories: they are standardly stratified and satisfy a double centralizer property with respect to their self-dual modules. The standard modules of the stratification play an important role as test objects for functors, as Vermas do in more classical representation theory. The existence of these representations has consequences for the structure of previously studied categorifications. It allows us to prove the non-degeneracy of Khovanov and Lauda's 2-category (that its Hom spaces have the expected dimension) in all symmetrizable types, and that the cyclotomic quiver Hecke algebras are symmetric Frobenius. In work of Reshetikhin and Turaev, the braiding and (co)evaluation maps between representations of quantum groups are used to define polynomial knot invariants. We show that the categorifications of tensor products are related by functors categorifying these maps, which allow the construction of bigraded knot homologies whose graded Euler characteristics are the original polynomial knot invariants.Comment: 99 pages. This is a significantly rewritten version of arXiv:1001.2020 and arXiv:1005.4559; both the exposition and proofs have been significantly improved. These earlier papers have been left up mainly in the interest of preserving references. v3: final version, to appear in Memoirs of the AMS. Proof of nondegeneracy moved to separate erratu

A categorical action on quantized quiver varieties

In this paper, we describe a categorical action of any Kac-Moody algebra on a category of quantized coherent sheaves on Nakajima quiver varieties. By "quantized coherent sheaves," we mean a category of sheaves of modules over a deformation quantization of the natural symplectic structure on quiver varieties. This action is a direct categorification of the geometric construction of universal enveloping algebras by Nakajima.Comment: 26 pages. DVI may not compile correctly; PDF is recommended. v3: extensive rewriting of proofs and exposition; main results are unchange

Tensor product algebras, Grassmannians and Khovanov homology

We discuss a new perspective on Khovanov homology, using categorifications of tensor products. While in many ways more technically demanding than Khovanov's approach (and its extension by Bar-Natan), this has distinct advantage of directly connecting Khovanov homology to a categorification of \$(\mathbb{C}^2)^{\otimes \ell}\$, and admitting a direct generalization to other Lie algebras. While the construction discussed is a special case of that given in previous work of the author, this paper contains new results about the special case of \$\mathfrak{sl}_2\$ showing an explicit connection to Bar-Natan's approach to Khovanov homology, to the geometry of Grassmannians, and to the categorified Jones-Wenzl projectors of Cooper and Krushkal. In particular, we show that the colored Jones homology defined by our approach coincides with that of Cooper and Krushkal.Comment: v2: 37 pages. The paper has been extended at several points, and various small issues corrected following referee reports. Final published versio