A K3 category is by definition a Calabi–Yau category of dimension two. Geometrically K3 categories occur as bounded derived categories of (twisted) coherent sheaves on K3 or abelian surfaces. A K3 category is generic if there are no spherical objects (or just one up to shift). We study stability conditions on K3 categories as introduced by Bridgeland and prove his conjecture about the topology of the stability manifold and the autoequivalences group for generic twisted projective K3, abelian surfaces, and K3 surfaces with trivial Picard group.

Sikora has given results which confirm the analogy between number fields and 3-manifolds. However, he has given proofs of his results which are very different in the arithmetic and in the topological case. In this paper, we show how to provide a unified approach to the results in the two cases. For this we introduce an equivariant cohomology which satisfies a localization theorem. In particular, we obtain a satisfactory explanation for the coincidences between Sikora’s formulas which leads us to clarify and to extend the dictionary of arithmetic topology.

Let X be a compact connected Riemann surface and ξ a square root of the holomorphic contangent bundle of X. Sending any line bundle L over X of order two to the image of dim H0(X, ξ ⊗ L) − dim H0(X, ξ) in Z/2Z defines a quadratic form on the space of all order two line bundles. We give a topological interpretation of this quadratic form in terms of index of vector fields on X.