Quantum deformations of projective three-space

Abstract

We describe the possible noncommutative deformations of complex projective three-space by exhibiting the Calabi--Yau algebras that serve as their homogeneous coordinate rings. We prove that the space parametrizing such deformations has exactly six irreducible components, and we give explicit presentations for the generic members of each family in terms of generators and relations. The proof uses deformation quantization to reduce the problem to a similar classification of unimodular quadratic Poisson structures in four dimensions, which we extract from Cerveau and Lins Neto's classification of degree-two foliations on projective space. Corresponding to the ``exceptional'' component in their classification is a quantization of the third symmetric power of the projective line that supports bimodule quantizations of the classical Schwarzenberger bundles.