turkmath.org

The theory of motives was conceived as a universal cohomology theory for algebraic varieties. Today it is a vast subject systematically developed in many directions spanning algebraic geometry, arithmetic geometry, homotopy theory and higher category theory. Following ideas of Kontsevich, Tabuada and Robalo independently developed a theory of “noncommutative” motives for DG-categories (such  as enhanced derived categories of schemes) which encompasses the classical theory of motives and helps assemble so-called additive invariants such as Algebraic K-Theory, Hochschild Homology and Topological Cyclic Homology into a motivic formalism in a very precise sense of the word. We will review the fundamental concepts at work, which will inevitably involve a foray into the formalism of enhanced and higher categories.We will then discuss Kontsevich’s notion of a noncommutative space and introduce noncommutative motives as “universal additive invariants” of noncommutative spaces. We will conclude by offering a brief sketch of Robalo’s construction of the noncommutative stable homotopy category, which is directly in the spirit of Voevodsky’s original construction. This talk contains no original work and is intended as an expository recapitulation.