Signed exceptional sequences and the cluster morphism category

Abstract: We introduce signed exceptional sequences as factorizations of morphisms in the cluster morphism category. The objects of this category are wide subcategories of the module category of a hereditary algebra. A morphism $[T]:\mathcal A\to \mathcal B$ is the equivalence class of a rigid object $T$ in the cluster category of $\mathcal A$ so that $\mathcal B$ is the right hom-ext perpendicular category of the underlying object $|T|\in \mathcal A$. Factorizations of a morphism $[T]$ are given by total orderings of the components of $T$. This is equivalent to a "signed exceptional sequence." For an algebra of finite representation type, the geometric realization of the cluster morphism category is an Eilenberg-MacLane space with fundamental group equal to the "picture group" introduced by the authors in [IOTW4].