A categorical Torelli theorem for quartic del Pezzo surfaces

Abstract

We solve categorical Torelli problem for quartic del Pezzo surfaces. That is, we prove that a del Pezzo surface of degree $4$ can be canonically reconstructed from its Kuznetsov component, which is the orthogonal subcategory to the structure sheaf in the derived category of the surface. Our methods work in equivariant setting and over arbitrary perfect fields. Using recent theory of atomic semi-orthogonal decompositions arXiv:2512.05064, we conclude that two minimal quartic del Pezzo surfaces are birational if and only if they are isomorphic. We also verify that the Kuznetsov component of a minimal quartic del Pezzo surface is semi-orthogonally indecomposable, confirming a conjecture by Auel and Bernardara.