Brauer groups and Galois cohomology of commutative ring spectra

In this paper we develop methods for classifying Baker, Richter, and Szymik's Azumaya algebras over a commutative ring spectrum, especially in the largely inaccessible case where the ring is nonconnective. We give obstruction-theoretic tools, constructing and classifying these algebras and their automorphisms with Goerss–Hopkins obstruction theory, and give descent-theoretic tools, applying Lurie's work on $\infty$ -categories to show that a finite Galois extension of rings in the sense of Rognes becomes a homotopy fixed-point equivalence on Brauer spaces. For even-periodic ring spectra $E$ , we find that the ‘algebraic’ Azumaya algebras whose coefficient ring is projective are governed by the Brauer–Wall group of $\pi _0(E)$ , recovering a result of Baker, Richter, and Szymik. This allows us to calculate many examples. For example, we find that the algebraic Azumaya algebras over Lubin–Tate spectra have either four or two Morita equivalence classes, depending on whether the prime is odd or even, that all algebraic Azumaya algebras over the complex K-theory spectrum $KU$ are Morita trivial, and that the group of the Morita classes of algebraic Azumaya algebras over the localization $KU[1/2]$ is $\mathbb {Z}/8\times \mathbb {Z}/2$ . Using our descent results and an obstruction theory spectral sequence, we also study Azumaya algebras over the real K-theory spectrum $KO$ which become Morita-trivial $KU$ -algebras. We show that there exist exactly two Morita equivalence classes of these. The nontrivial Morita equivalence class is realized by an ‘exotic’ $KO$ -algebra with the same coefficient ring as $\mathrm {End}_{KO}(KU)$ . This requires a careful analysis of what happens in the homotopy fixed-point spectral sequence for the Picard space of $KU$ , previously studied by Mathew and Stojanoska.

Higher rank K-theoretic Donaldson-Thomas Theory of points

We exploit the critical structure on the Quot scheme $\text {Quot}_{{{\mathbb {A}}}^3}({\mathscr {O}}^{\oplus r}\!,n)$ , in particular the associated symmetric obstruction theory, in order to study rank r K-theoretic Donaldson-Thomas (DT) invariants of the local Calabi-Yau $3$ -fold ${{\mathbb {A}}}^3$ . We compute the associated partition function as a plethystic exponential, proving a conjecture proposed in string theory by Awata-Kanno and Benini-Bonelli-Poggi-Tanzini. A crucial step in the proof is the fact, nontrival if $r>1$ , that the invariants do not depend on the equivariant parameters of the framing torus $({{\mathbb {C}}}^\ast )^r$ . Reducing from K-theoretic to cohomological invariants, we compute the corresponding DT invariants, proving a conjecture of Szabo. Reducing further to enumerative DT invariants, we solve the higher rank DT theory of a pair $(X,F)$ , where F is an equivariant exceptional locally free sheaf on a projective toric $3$ -fold X. As a further refinement of the K-theoretic DT invariants, we formulate a mathematical definition of the chiral elliptic genus studied in physics. This allows us to define elliptic DT invariants of ${{\mathbb {A}}}^3$ in arbitrary rank, which we use to tackle a conjecture of Benini-Bonelli-Poggi-Tanzini.

K-Theoretic Generalized Donaldson–Thomas Invariants

We introduce the notion of almost perfect obstruction theory on a Deligne–Mumford stack and show that stacks with almost perfect obstruction theories have virtual structure sheaves, which are deformation invariant. The main components in the construction are an induced embedding of the coarse moduli sheaf of the intrinsic normal cone into the associated obstruction sheaf stack and the construction of a $K$-theoretic Gysin map for sheaf stacks. We show that many stacks of interest admit almost perfect obstruction theories. As a result, we are able to define virtual structure sheaves and $K$-theoretic classical and generalized Donaldson–Thomas invariants of sheaves and complexes on Calabi–Yau three-folds.

The integral cohomology of the Hilbert scheme of points on a surface

We show that if X is a smooth complex projective surface with torsion-free cohomology, then the Hilbert scheme $X^{[n]}$ has torsion-free cohomology for every natural number n. This extends earlier work by Markman on the case of Poisson surfaces. The proof uses Gholampour-Thomas’s reduced obstruction theory for nested Hilbert schemes of surfaces.

Localizing virtual structure sheaves for almost perfect obstruction theories

Almost perfect obstruction theories were introduced in an earlier paper by the authors as the appropriate notion in order to define virtual structure sheaves and K-theoretic invariants for many moduli stacks of interest, including K-theoretic Donaldson-Thomas invariants of sheaves and complexes on Calabi-Yau threefolds. The construction of virtual structure sheaves is based on the K-theory and Gysin maps of sheaf stacks. In this paper, we generalize the virtual torus localization and cosection localization formulas and their combination to the setting of almost perfect obstruction theory. To this end, we further investigate the K-theory of sheaf stacks and its functoriality properties. As applications of the localization formulas, we establish a K-theoretic wall-crossing formula for simple $\mathbb{C} ^\ast $ -wall crossings and define K-theoretic invariants refining the Jiang-Thomas virtual signed Euler characteristics.