1 Triangulated categories

Theorem 1.1. Let A be an abelian category, and Kom(A) the category of complexes. Then there is a functor
Q : Kom(A) → D(A) satisfies

(1) if f ∈ Hom(Kom(A)) is a quasi-isomorphism, then Q(f ) is an isomorphism;

(2) if F : Kom(A) → C is a functor such that F (f ) is an isomorphism for any quasi-isomorphism f , then
there is a unique functor G : D(A) → C such that F = G ◦ Q.

Similar results hold for Komb (A) and Db (A), Kom− (A) and D− (A), and Kom+ (A) and D+ (A).
The construction of the triangulated category.

• shift functor [1]: A ∈ Kom(A), A[1]i = Ai+1 .

• mapping cone: f : A → B, cone(f ) = A[1] ⊕ B and d(an+1 , bn ) = (−dan+1 , f (an+1 + dbn )).

• mapping cylinder: cyl(f ) = A ⊕ A[1] ⊕ B and d(an , an+1 , bn ) = (dan − an+1 , −dan+1 , f (an+1 + dbn )).

We have the following exact sequence

0 −→ A −→ cyl(f ) −→ cone(f ) −→ 0.

Note that B is homotopic to cyl(f ) and hence B → cyl(f ) is a quasi-isomorphism. The we get a ‘fake‘ exact
sequence in D(cA):
0 −→ A −→ B −→ cone(f ) −→ 0.

Definition 1.2. A category T is a derived category if the following conditions are satisfied:

(0) T is an additive category;

(1) there is an autoequivalence [1];

(2) there is a set of distinguished triangles with the following axioms:

TR1 A → A → 0 → A[1] is a distinguished triangle; if A → B is any morphism, then there is a distinguished

triangle A → B → C → A[1].

TR2 A −→ B −→ C −→ A[1] is a distinguished triangle if and only if B −→ C −→ A[1] −→ B[1] is a

distinguished triangle;

TR3

TR4 “9-lemma”

Theorem 1.3. D(A) is triangulated.

First, the shift functor [1] is already given.

 2 COMPACT OBJECTS

2 Compact objects
Let T be a triangulated category. The coproduct of Aλ ∈ T is defined by
`
λ∈Λ
a Y
Hom( Aλ , B) = Hom(Aλ , B).
λ λ∈Λ

If T = D(M od − R), then Aλ = ⊕Aλ .

`

An object A ∈ T is compact if
a a
Hom(A, B) = Hom(A, Bλ )
λ λ

for any family of objects Bλ ∈ T . Let T c ⊂ T be the full subcategory consists of compact objects. We say
that T is compactly generated if for any A ∈ T , there exists B ∈ T c such that Hom(B, A) ̸= 0.

Example 2.1. Let X be a projective variety, and T = D(QCoh(X)) the derived category of quasi-coherent
sheaves on X. In this case, F ∈ Kom(Coh(X)) is perfect if and only if F is a bounded complex of locally free
sheaves.

Theorem 2.2. If T = D(QCoh(X)), then T c = P erf (Coh(X)) ⊂ Db (Coh(X)).

Below is some ideas of the proof. Suppose that A is perfect, then it is compact. To see this, assume that
A has the form
0 −→ A0 −→ A1 −→ A2 −→ · · · −→ Am−1 −→ Am −→ 0 −→ . . .

Let A′ be the complex

0 −→ A0 −→ A1 −→ A2 −→ · · · −→ Am−1 −→ 0 −→ 0 −→ . . .

Then there is an exact sequence 0 −→ Am [−m] −→ A −→ A′ −→ 0. By induction on m, suppose that m = 0.

Then A is a locally free sheaf. Hence,
a a a a a
Hom(A, Bλ ) = Γ(X, A∗ ⊗ Bλ ) = Γ(X, (A∗ ⊗ Bλ )) = Γ(X, A∗ ⊗ B) = Hom(A, Bλ ).

Then the result follows from 5-lemma.

Let
d
1 2 d
B0 −→ B1 −→ B2 −→

be a sequence of morphisms in T . If we want to define lim

−→Bi , we need to take quotient of Bi . So there is
`

no limit which satisfies universality. We can define a homotopy limit as follows:

a a
hocolim Bi = cone(id − shift : Bi → Bi ).

Let pi : Bi → Bi be the projection. Then id − shift = (pi − bi pi−1 ) in the above definition.
` `

Note that the homotopy limit is not unique.

Lemma 2.3. Let A be a compact object. Then lim

−→ Hom(A, Bi ) = Hom(A, hocolim Bi ).
If X is a smooth projective variety, then Db (X) = P erf (X) ⊂ D(QCoh(X)).
3 Brown representability
Topological proof of Grothendieck duality.
Let T, T ′ be triangulated categories with coproduct. Assume that T is compactly generated. Let
F : T → T ′ be an exact functor which preserves coproduct, that is, F ( Aλ ) = F (Aλ ). Then there is a
` `

right adjoint G : T ′ → T of F :
HomT ′ (F (A), B) = HomT (A, G(B)).

If f : X → Y is a projective morphism, then Rf∗ has a right adjoint f ! .