Mukai flops and derived categories

Abstract

In this note, we shall prove that two smooth projective varieties of dim 2n connected by a Mukai flop have equivalent bounded derived categories. More precisely, let $\phi : X - - \to X^+$ be a Mukai flop with centers $Y \subset X$ and $Y^+ \subset X^+$. In our case, the natural fuctor $\Phi : D(X) \to D(X^+)$ defined by the graph of $\phi$ is not fully faithful. Instead, let $X \to {\bar X}$ and $X^+ \to {\bar X}$ be the birational contraction maps of the centers, and put ${\hat X} := X \times_{{\bar X} X^+$. Then ${\hat X}$ is a normal crossing variety with two irreducible components. This ${\hat X}$ defines a functor $\Psi : D(X) \to D(X^+)$. We shall prove that this $\Psi$ is an equivalence. Recently, Wierzba and Wisniewski have announced that two birationally equivalent, complex projective symplectic 4-folds are connected by a finite sequence of Mukai flops. Our result with this shows that $D(X)$ is a birational invariant for complex projective symplectic 4-folds.