Categorical resolutions of filtered schemes

Abstract

We give an alternative proof of the theorem by Kuznetsov and Lunts, stating that any separated scheme of finite type over a field of characteristic zero admits a categorical resolution of singularities. Their construction makes use of the fact that every variety (over a field of characteristic zero) can be resolved by a finite sequence of blow-ups along smooth centres. We merely require the existence of (projective) resolutions. To accomplish this we put the $\mathcal{A}$-spaces of Kuznetsov and Lunts in a different light, viewing them instead as schemes endowed with finite filtrations. The categorical resolution is then constructed by gluing together differential graded categories obtained from a hypercube of finite length filtered schemes.