Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/iii/paper-23/2/solution

Cover the projective line by and . On their overlap the coordinate is invertible. Choose frames of the twisting sheaf on projective space with . The vanishing of quasi-coherent cohomology on an affine scheme applies to both charts and their intersection, so the Čech cochain complex
computes the sheaf cohomology. Its kernel identifies with , and its cokernel is
For , the intersection has basis ; for it is zero. In the quotient, powers with or disappear. The surviving basis for is ; for none survives. Hence
This is the Čech cohomology of twists on the projective line.
By the preceding question, . In the frame its degree-one Čech cohomology is one-dimensional, represented by . Define
This is well defined: differentials regular on have nonnegative powers, and those regular on have powers at most when expressed using . Evaluation and the cup product give natural pairings
For with , the basis element in pairs with in and with no other element of this dual Laurent basis. The pairing matrix is a permutation matrix, hence invertible. For the same computation exchanges degrees zero and one. For both sides vanish. Thus the pairings are perfect for every line bundle on .
Here we used the classification of line bundles on the projective line: they are for integers . One direct justification is that every line bundle has a nonzero rational section and hence is associated with a divisor on an algebraic curve. The finite closed point defined by an irreducible polynomial is linearly equivalent to , using the principal divisor of . Thus every divisor is equivalent to its degree times , proving the classification over arbitrary .
To extend the pairing to every locally free coherent sheaf , induct on rank, without assuming the splitting theorem of the next question. A one-dimensional subspace of the generic fibre, saturated in , gives an exact sequence
with a line bundle and a lower-rank vector bundle. This saturated line subbundle on a smooth curve exists because its stalk and its torsion-free quotient are free over the discrete valuation rings of the curve. The dual sequence, tensored with , is exact as well, since the original sequence splits locally.
The two long exact sequences in sheaf cohomology, after dualizing one, are compatible with the evaluation pairings. In Čech cohomology, this compatibility follows by lifting a section locally: the differences of its lifts represent its connecting class, and contracting those differences with a dual cocycle gives the transpose connecting map, with the usual sign. Thus the connecting maps are adjoint; changing one vertical map's sign gives a commuting diagram. Its rows are
The maps for and are isomorphisms by the line-bundle calculation and induction. Exactness then makes the maps for isomorphisms, by the Five lemma (or by comparing the relevant kernels and cokernels). All groups are finite-dimensional because the curve is projective and the sheaves coherent. Therefore residue duality on the projective line proves
These isomorphisms are natural in . Higher sheaf cohomology vanishes by the same two-chart complex.

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