Algebraic cotangent space 2026-10-06
At a closed point of a variety over an algebraically closed field, the cotangent space is . The universal property of Kähler differentials identifies its dual vector space with -derivations of the local ring into the residue field, hence with the Zariski tangent space. The Kähler differential sheaf has the same fibre because a derivation kills constants and products of two elements of the maximal ideal.
For distinct closed points over an algebraically closed field, evaluation gives the short exact sequence . If all global regular functions are constant, the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology embeds into . Thus this ideal detects a concrete obstruction to affineness.
Let be the affine variety with coordinate ring . Its principal opens cover because . On , the localization of global sections on a principal open identifies its coordinate ring with , giving an isomorphism
On an overlap the two maps are induced by the same elements of , or equivalently by the same identification with , so they agree. Glue them to . The inverses agree on the overlaps as well and glue to its inverse. At a closed point , this is the map corresponding to the evaluation ring homomorphism , . This proves the cohomological criterion for affineness by an explicit global isomorphism.
For the projective-space complement, assume and choose two distinct closed points . Take the ideal sheaf of two closed points on . The codimension-two extension of regular functions on a normal variety gives
One can see this directly: on every standard affine chart of , a rational function written in lowest terms cannot have a nonconstant denominator, because an irreducible polynomial factor of the denominator would define a pole along a codimension-one hypersurface, and such a hypersurface is not removed by . The extended function is constant because every global regular function on projective space is constant. Now the short exact sequence
sends diagonally into on global sections. Its cokernel is , and the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology injects that cokernel into . Thus
The assumption is necessary: is already affine and has no such example.
On an affine chart , the Module of Kähler differentials is generated by symbols subject to -linearity and . It represents -derivations. These modules commute with localization, so their associated quasi-coherent sheaves glue to the Kähler differential sheaf . It is coherent: if and , then it has the finite presentation of a module
For a closed point , put with maximal ideal and residue field . The Zariski tangent space is , equivalently . A derivation kills constants and , so it factors through ; conversely every linear functional on defines such a derivation by the product rule. The universal property of Kähler differentials therefore identifies this space with
In particular, , the algebraic cotangent space.
A point is a smooth point of a variety when its local ring is a regular local ring; over this algebraically closed field this says . Tensor the finite presentation of a module above with . The tangent space is the kernel of the Jacobian matrix , hence has dimension . This proves the Jacobian criterion
For a smooth irreducible variety , choose at each point an invertible -minor and shrink the affine chart so that it remains invertible. Its relations eliminate of the generators of , yielding a surjection . At the generic point, its target has dimension : over a perfect ground field, a separating transcendence basis of the function field has differentials forming a basis. Equivalently this follows from the assumed density of the smooth locus. The kernel therefore becomes zero over the fraction field of the integral domain . As a submodule of , it is a torsion-free module, so it is already zero. Thus these maps give local isomorphisms with , proving local freeness of differentials on a smooth variety with rank .
For an affine chart , write and . The restriction of a module sheaf to a closed subvariety is . The Conormal exact sequence for Kähler differentials is
It follows from the generators and relations: passing to imposes precisely the additional relations for . The first map is well defined because lies in . Glue these exact module sequences, using exactness of localization, to obtain
In the final assertion, interpret locally principal subvariety as a proper local hypersurface. Its ideal on each chart is with . Since is an irreducible variety and reduced, is a non-zero-divisor, and , , is an isomorphism. These local rank-one descriptions make the conormal sheaf invertible.
Because is not contained in the singular locus of , there is a dense open subset of where both and are smooth varieties. At a closed point there, by the Krull principal ideal theorem. The tangent description then forces . Hence the conormal map is injective at the generic point of . Its kernel is a subsheaf of a line bundle on the integral variety , so it is a torsion-free sheaf; a torsion-free sheaf with zero generic fibre is zero. This proves conormal injectivity for a generically smooth Cartier divisor. If zero equations were allowed in the phrase locally principal, would be a counterexample to invertibility; the proper-hypersurface convention is essential.
Let be the maximal ideal of the local ring . Every open subset of containing the closed point is the whole spectrum of a commutative ring: it contains a principal open subscheme with , and that is a unit, so .
Given , choose a standard affine open subscheme containing . Its preimage is consequently all of . The affine-target adjunction for schemes expresses in this chart by elements for , the images of . It is represented by homogeneous coordinates with and .
Conversely, a tuple with some defines a morphism of schemes into by . Choosing another unit entry gives the same morphism of schemes, since the usual projective space transition functions identify the ratios. Multiplying all entries by one unit does not change any ratio. If two such tuples define the same morphism of schemes, choose a unit entry in the first and a unit entry in the second. In the second chart, the function pulls back to . Because the whole map lies in , this ratio is a unit, so is a unit too. Equality in this chart gives for every , hence .
Thus the correspondence is exactly
This is the projective coordinates over a local ring description.
For a general ring, the key open-neighbourhood argument fails. Even a tuple generating the unit ideal need not have any unit entry. For example, over the pair defines a map to whose two points have images and . Neither coordinate is a unit, and no common unit multiple changes that fact. The map lies in no single standard chart. More generally, maps into projective space correspond to invertible sheaf quotients of ; the quotient need not be a free rank-one module outside the local ring case.
Compute each scheme-theoretic fibre by tensoring with the residue field of the chosen base point.
For the first map, put for a point of and let be the image of in . Then
If the characteristic of a field is not two and , the two factors and are coprime, so the Chinese remainder theorem gives : the scheme-theoretic fibre is two distinct -points. If , its ring is , a dual number ring, so it is a nonreduced double point. In characteristic two, at every point, giving a nonreduced double point in every scheme-theoretic fibre. This covers the generic point, where , as well as closed points defined by irreducible polynomials.
For the arithmetic map, the generic scheme-theoretic fibre is
Over a closed point it is . At this is , since . For odd , the finite field multiplicative group is cyclic, and is a square exactly when . Thus
In the second case there is one degree-two closed point over , which becomes two points after extending the residue field to an algebraic closure. The case remains nonreduced after such extension.
For , the unique source point maps to the generic point . Since all nonzero integers are invertible in ,
Indeed , whereas . The distinction between a reduced split scheme-theoretic fibre and a nonreduced double point is essential in the first two examples.
Treat as the trivial group if is not abelian. The restriction maps satisfy the presheaf identities. To verify the sheaf gluing axiom, take an open cover of . If , every section group is trivial. If , at least one contains . Every two such opens have an overlap containing , so compatibility forces all their sections to have the same value . Opens not containing have their unique trivial section. The value is exactly the unique glued section. Thus the stated presheaf is a skyscraper sheaf, including for nonabelian groups.
For the stalk of a sheaf, take the direct limit over neighbourhoods of . If some neighbourhood of omits , neighbourhoods inside are cofinal and all their groups are trivial. If every neighbourhood of contains , every group in the system is and every transition map is the identity. Consequently, on the arbitrary topological space in the question,
Membership in this closure means exactly that every neighbourhood of contains . In particular . If is a closed point, the closure is just and the familiar point-supported answer results. The separation assumption is not present in the printed question, so it cannot be imposed silently.
Skyscraper sheaf Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For a point inclusion and an abelian group , the skyscraper sheaf has sections on opens containing and zero on other opens. Its restriction maps are identities or maps to zero. If , its nonzero stalks occur at every point of the closure : exactly those points whose every neighbourhood contains . Thus the familiar assertion that only the stalk at is nonzero requires to be a closed point. It is always flasque, giving the stated skyscraper sheaf cohomology.
Smooth point of a variety 2026-10-06
Over a perfect field, a point of a variety is smooth when its local ring is a regular local ring. For an irreducible variety of dimension at a closed point, this is equivalent to its Zariski tangent space having dimension . The Jacobian criterion expresses the equality as a matrix-rank condition.
T1 space 2026-10-06
A topological space is T1 when every point is a closed point. Equivalently, for distinct there is an open set containing but not , and an open set containing but not . These open sets need not be disjoint. Every Hausdorff space is T1, but an infinite set with its cofinite topology is T1 without being Hausdorff.