Generalized friezes and a modified Caldero–Chapoton map depending on a rigid object

Abstract

AbstractThe (usual) Caldero–Chapoton map is a map from the set of objects of a category to a Laurent polynomial ring over the integers. In the case of a cluster category, it mapsreachableindecomposable objects to the corresponding cluster variables in a cluster algebra. This formalizes the idea that the cluster category is acategorificationof the cluster algebra. The definition of the Caldero–Chapoton map requires the category to be 2-Calabi-Yau, and the map depends on a cluster-tilting object in the category. We study a modified version of the Caldero–Chapoton map which requires only that the category have a Serre functor and depends only on a rigid object in the category. It is well known that the usual Caldero–Chapoton map gives rise to so-calledfriezes, for instance, Conway–Coxeter friezes. We show that the modified Caldero–Chapoton map gives rise to what we callgeneralized friezesand that, for cluster categories of Dynkin typeA, it recovers the generalized friezes introduced by combinatorial means in recent work by the authors and Bessenrodt.