Clusters and seeds in acyclic cluster algebras

Abstract

Cluster algebras are commutative algebras that were introduced by Fomin and Zelevinsky in order to model the dual canonical basis of a quantum group and total positivity in algebraic groups. Cluster categories were introduced as a representation-theoretic model for cluster algebras. In this article we use this representation-theoretic approach to prove a conjecture of Fomin and Zelevinsky, that for cluster algebras with no coefficients associated to quivers with no oriented cycles, a seed is determined by its cluster. We also obtain an interpretation of the monomial in the denominator of a non-polynomial cluster variable in terms of the composition factors of an indecomposable exceptional module over an associated hereditary algebra.