Stable representation homology and Koszul duality

TL;DR

This paper extends classical representation theory results to the derived setting, demonstrating stabilization of certain homological maps and identifying obstructions at finite levels, with applications to algebraic and combinatorial structures.

Contribution

It proves a derived version of Procesi's theorem for augmented algebras, showing stabilization of trace maps and identifying obstructions at finite n, with connections to Koszul duality and stable homology.

Findings

Stabilization of trace map symmetrizations as n approaches infinity.

Existence of homological obstructions to surjectivity at finite n.

Identification of Koszul duality between Chevalley-Eilenberg complex and derived representation algebra.

Abstract

This paper is a sequel to [BKR], where we studied the derived affine scheme DRep_n(A) of the classical representation scheme Rep_n(A) for an associative k-algebra A. In [BKR], we have constructed canonical trace maps Tr_n(A): HC(A) -> H[DRep_n(A)]^GL extending the usual characters of representations to higher cyclic homology. This raises a question whether a well known theorem of Procesi [P] holds in the derived setting: namely, is the algebra homomorphism Sym[Tr_n(A)]: Sym[HC(A)] -> H[DRep_n(A)]^GL defined by Tr_n(A) surjective ? In the present paper, we answer this question for augmented algebras. Given such an algebra, we construct a canonical dense DG subalgebra DRep_\infty(A)^Tr of the topological DG algebra DRep_\infty(A)^{GL_\infty}. It turns out that on passing to the inverse limit (as n -> \infty), the family of maps Sym[Tr_n(A)] "stabilizes" to an isomorphism Sym[\bar{HC}(A)] = H[DRep_\infty(A)^Tr]. The derived version of Procesi's theorem does therefore hold in the limit. However, for a fixed (finite) n, there exist homological obstructions to the surjectivity of Sym[Tr_n(A)], and we show on simple examples that these obstructions do not vanish in general. We compare our result with the classical theorem of Loday-Quillen and Tsygan on stable homology of matrix Lie algebras. We show that the relative Chevalley-Eilenberg complex C(gl_\infty(A), gl_\infty(k); k) equipped with the natural coalgebra structure is Koszul dual to the DG algebra DRep_\infty(A)^Tr. We also extend our main results to bigraded DG algebras, in which case we show that DRep_{\infty}(A)^Tr = DRep_{\infty}(A)^GL_{\infty}. As an application, we compute the (bigraded) Euler characteristics of DRep_\infty(A)^GL_{\infty} and \bar{HC}(A) and derive some interesting combinatorial identities.