From Pre-triangulation to Triangulation: Obstructions and Exact Lifting

Abstract

We give a new equivalent formulation of Verdier's octahedral axiom. An initial square in a pre-triangulated category determines an obstruction in a quotient of ordinary Hom groups. Its vanishing is equivalent to the existence of a good completion, and $\mathrm{TR4}$ is equivalent to this vanishing for the squares associated with composable morphisms. As a consequence, if two pre-triangulations have the same underlying additive category and one is triangulated, then the other satisfies $\mathrm{TR4}$ precisely when their relative inverse Heller comparison admits an exact lift along every short exact sequence in the Freyd category. As applications, we prove that the exotic pre-triangulated category of D\'iaz Cabrera--Muro is in fact a triangulated category over every algebraically closed field. We construct scalar families for type-$A_{3a-1}$ preprojective algebras over arbitrary fields and for a range of Dynkin preprojective algebras in characteristic two; in each family the zero parameter is the unique triangulated member. The local equations also yield separable descent, including canonical triangulations for non-modular equivariantizations and for the Markman--Mehrotra K3 deformation categories.