The spectrum of prime ideals in tensor triangulated categories

Abstract

We define the spectrum of a tensor triangulated category $K$ as the set of so-called prime ideals, endowed with a suitable topology. In this very generality, the spectrum is the universal space in which one can define supports for objects of $K$. This construction is functorial with respect to all tensor triangulated functors. Several elementary properties of schemes hold for such spaces, e.g. the existence of generic points and some quasi-compactness. Locally trivial morphisms are proved to be nilpotent. We establish in complete generality a classification of thick tensor-ideal subcategories in terms of arbitrary unions of closed subsets with quasi-compact complements (Thomason's theorem for schemes, mutatis mutandis). We also equip this spectrum with a sheaf of rings, turning it into a locally ringed space. We compute examples and show that our spectrum unifies the schemes of algebraic geometry and the support varieties of modular representation theory.