Lifts of longest elements to braid groups acting on derived categories

If we have a braid group acting on a derived category by spherical twists, how does a lift of the longest element of the symmetric group act? We give an answer to this question, using periodic twists, for the derived category of modules over a symmetric algebra. The question has already been answered by Rouquier and Zimmermann in a special case. We prove a lifting theorem for periodic twists, which allows us to apply their answer to the general case.

Along the way we study tensor products in derived categories of bimodules. We also use the lifting theorem to give new proofs of two known results: the existence of braid relations and, using the theory of almost Koszul duality due to Brenner, Butler, and King, the result of Rouquier and Zimmermann mentioned above.