Spherical adjunctions of stable $\infty$-categories and the relative S-construction

Abstract: We develop the theory of semi-orthogonal decompositions and spherical functors in the framework of stable $\infty$-categories. Building on this, we study the relative Waldhausen S-construction $S_\bullet(F)$ of a spherical functor $F$ and equip it with a natural paracyclic structure (``rotational symmetry''). This fulfills a part of the general program to provide a rigorous account of perverse schobers which are (thus far conjectural) categorifications of perverse sheaves. Namely, in terms of our previous identification of perverse sheaves on Riemann surfaces with Milnor sheaves, the relative $S$-construction with its paracyclic symmetry amounts to a categorification of the stalks of a Milnor sheaf at a singularity of the corresponding perverse sheaf. The action of the paracyclic rotation is a categorical analog of the monodromy on the vanishing cycles of a perverse sheaf. Having this local categorification in mind, we may view the S-construction of a spherical functor as defining a schober locally at a singularity. Each component $S_n(F)$ can be interpreted as a partially wrapped Fukaya category of the disk with coefficients in the schober and with $n+1$ stops at the boundary.