A combinatorial approach to scattering diagrams

Nathan Reading

Published 2018-06-13Version 1

Scattering diagrams arose in the context of mirror symmetry, but a special class of scattering diagrams (the cluster scattering diagrams) were recently developed to prove key structural results on cluster algebras. This paper studies cluster scattering diagrams from a combinatorial point of view. We use the connection to cluster algebras to calculate the function attached to the limiting wall of a rank-2 cluster scattering diagram of affine type. In the skew-symmetric rank-2 affine case, this recovers a formula due to Reineke. In the same case, we show that the generating function for signed Narayana numbers appears in a role analogous to a cluster variable. In acyclic finite type, we construct cluster scattering diagrams of acyclic finite type from Cambrian fans and sortable elements, with a simple direct proof.