We study the oriented exchange graph EG(Gamma_N Q) ofreachable hearts in the finite-dimensional derived category D(Gamma_N Q) of the CY-N Ginzburg algebra Gamma_N Q associated to an acyclic quiver Q. We show that any such heart is induced from some heart in the bounded derived category D(Q) via some ‘Lagrangian immersion’ L :D(Q)->D(Gamma_N Q). We build on this to show that the quotient of EG(Gamma_N Q) by the Seidel–Thomas braid group is the exchange graph CEG_N−1(Q)of cluster tilting sets in the (higher) cluster category C_N−1(Q). As an application, we interpret Buan–Thomas’ coloured quiver for a cluster tilting set in terms of the Ext quiver of any corresponding heart in D(Gamma_N Q).

We study the fundamental groups of the exchange graphs for the bounded derived category D(Q) of a Dynkin quiver Q and the finite-dimensional derived category D(Gamma_N Q)of the Calabi–Yau-N Ginzburg algebra associated to Q. In the case of D(Q), we prove that its space of stability conditions (in the sense of Bridgeland) is simply connected. As an application, we show that the Donaldson–Thomas type invariant associated to Q can be calculated as a quantum dilogarithm function on its exchange graph. In the case of D(Gamma_N Q), we show that the faithfulness of the Seidel–Thomas braid group action (which is known for Q of type A or N=2) implies the simply connectedness of the space of stability conditions.

We are interested in the 3-Calabi-Yau categories D arising from quivers with potential associated to a triangulated marked surface S (without punctures). We prove that the spherical twist group ST of D is isomorphic to a subgroup (generated by braid twists) of the mapping class group of the decorated marked surface S_Delta. Here S_Delta is the surface obtained from S by decorating with a set of points, where the number of points equals the number of triangles in any triangulations of S. For instance, when S is an annulus, the result implies that the corresponding spaces of stability conditions on D are contractible.

We study derived categories arising from quivers with potential associated to a decorated marked surface S_Delta, in the sense taken in a paper by Qiu. We prove two conjectures from Qiu’s paper in which, under a bijection between certain objects in these categories and certain arcs in S, the dimensions of morphisms between these objects equal the intersection numbers between the corresponding arcs.

We prove that any “finite-type” component of a stability space of a triangulated category is contractible. The motivating example of such a component is the stability space of the Calabi–Yau–N category D(Gamma_N Q) associated to an ADE Dynkin quiver. In addition to showing that this is contractible we prove that the braid group Br(Q) acts freely upon it by spherical twists, in particular that the spherical twist group Br(Gamma_N Q) is isomorphic to Br(Q). This generalises the result of Brav–Thomas for the N=2 case. Other classes of triangulated categories with finite-type components in their stability spaces include locally finite triangulated categories with finite-rank Grothendieck group and discrete derived categories of finite global dimension.