Categorical action filtrations via localization and the growth as a symplectic invariant

Abstract We develop a purely categorical theory of action filtrations and their associated growth invariants. When specialized to categories of geometric interest, such as the wrapped Fukaya category of a Weinstein manifold, and the bounded derived category of coherent sheaves on a smooth algebraic variety, our categorical action filtrations essentially recover previously studied filtrations of geometric origin. Our approach is built around the notion of a smooth categorical compactification. We prove that a smooth categorical compactification induces well-defined growth invariants, which are moreover preserved under zig-zags of such compactifications. The technical heart of the paper is a method for computing these growth invariants in terms of the growth of certain colimits of (bi)modules. In practice, such colimits arise in both geometric settings of interest. The main applications are: (1) A “quantitative” refinement of homological mirror symmetry, which relates the growth of the Reeb-length filtration on the symplectic geometry side with the growth of filtrations on the algebraic geometry side defined by the order of pole at infinity (often these can be expressed in terms of the dimension of the support of sheaves). (2) A proof that the Reeb-length growth of symplectic cohomology and wrapped Floer cohomology on a Weinstein manifold are at most exponential. (3) Lower bounds for the entropy and polynomial entropy of certain natural endofunctors acting on Fukaya categories.