Coboundary 2026-10-06
An element in the image of the preceding differential of a cochain complex. Every coboundary is a cocycle, since consecutive differentials compose to zero.
Line bundles trivialized by an open cover Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
A line bundle trivial on each open set is determined by unit-valued transition functions on pairwise intersections. Their cocycle identities make the local trivial bundles glue; changing frames changes the cocycle by a coboundary. The tensor product of sheaves multiplies the transition functions, giving the displayed group isomorphism with Čech cohomology.
For integral singular cochains and , define the cup product on an ordered simplex by
The same construction works over any commutative coefficient ring. Expanding the coboundary as the alternating sum of faces gives the Leibniz identity
Indeed faces deleting vertices before the split occur in the first sum, faces after the split occur in the second, and the two terms at the common vertex cancel with opposite signs. Thus the product of cocycles is a cocycle. Replacing by changes the product with a cocycle by ; replacing by changes the product with a cocycle by . Hence the product is independent of representatives and defines a well-defined product on cohomology classes.
With coefficients, the real-projective-space cohomology ring is
For , the pullback of the degree-one generator is either zero or . The second choice would send the zero class to the nonzero class , contradicting the naturality of the cup product. Thus the generator pulls back to zero, and so do all its positive powers. For the target's reduced cohomology is already zero. Therefore every such map induces zero on reduced mod-two cohomology.
Suppose a continuous had everywhere. Then
is a continuous odd map to and descends to . For , a path from to projects to a loop detected by the degree-one generator of the double cover. Its image lifts to a path from to , so is detected by the target's double cover as well. Thus is nonzero in degree one, contradicting the preceding calculation. For , an odd continuous map from the connected circle to is already impossible. The case is immediate. Hence
This proves the Borsuk-Ulam theorem rather than assuming it.
For a closed cover , assume no member contains an antipodal pair. Apply the just-proved theorem to , using any metric on the sphere. Empty sets can be assigned a constant positive coordinate. It gives equal distances at . If either point belongs to an with , zero distance and closedness place both points in it, a contradiction. Hence neither lies in any of the first sets, and both must lie in , another contradiction. This proves the Lusternik-Schnirelmann-Borsuk theorem for closed sets.
Four closed sets on need not contain an antipodal pair. Take the four unit vertices of a regular tetrahedron centered at zero and define . These closed sets cover the sphere by maximizing the four scalar products. If and belonged to , both inequalities would force all four scalar products to be equal. Since , they would all be zero, and because the vertices span , would be zero. This is impossible on the sphere. Thus these four sets give the antipodal-free closed cover from simplex Voronoi cells counterexample.
Use the short exact sequence of coefficient groups
The groups of singular chains are free, so applying the cochain construction gives a short exact sequence of cochain complexes. Its long exact sequence in cohomology has the required terms and reduction map . Define the Bockstein homomorphism to be its connecting homomorphism.
Explicitly, represent by a mod- cocycle and lift it to an integral singular cochain . Since is a cocycle, is divisible by . Then
This is exactly the lift-and-coboundary construction for the coefficient sequence above: the mod- coboundary of lies in the image of . The quotient cochain is a cocycle, since and integral cochains have no -torsion. Replacing by another lift adds and changes the quotient by modulo ; replacing the representative by a coboundary likewise leaves its cohomology class unchanged. Thus the definition is independent of choices.
A degree-zero cocycle is a function on points constant on each path component. Choose an integer representative for its value on each component. This produces an integral zero-cocycle lift, with zero coboundary. Hence the Bockstein vanishes on for every space.
For a nonzero example in every positive degree , take the Moore space , attaching the cell by a map of mapping degree . Its positive-degree integral cellular cochain complex has the differential from degree to ; when , the preceding differential from degree zero is zero. Modulo the displayed differential vanishes, and . Lift the degree- generator to the cellular cochain with value one. Its coboundary has value , so dividing by gives the generator in degree . Naturality of cellular and singular cohomology with coefficient sequences identifies this with the Bockstein on a cyclic Moore space. Therefore is nonzero, indeed an isomorphism, in the requested degree for every prime .
Finally take integral lifts of cocycles representing and . Write and . The cochain cup product obeys the graded Leibniz identity, so
Divide by , reduce modulo and pass to cohomology. This proves the Bockstein derivation rule
On the standard affine charts , use the formal frame and glue rank-one free sheaves by
The transition functions are regular units on overlaps and satisfy the cocycle identity. This constructs the twisting sheaf on projective space as an invertible sheaf for every integer , including negative .
On a nonempty , a section has local expressions , where . Pulling to the punctured affine cone gives . Their agreement on overlaps makes them one homogeneous rational function of degree , regular on . To make its polynomial representation explicit, write one nonzero local coefficient as in the affine coordinates. Homogenize to degrees ; the resulting rational expression is
If the exponent of is negative, move its power to the denominator. Cancel common factors; the greatest common divisor of homogeneous polynomials can be chosen homogeneous. Thus with coprime homogeneous polynomials, , and .
Conversely, for such a homogeneous rational function regular on , its coefficient is regular on : restrict to the slice . These coefficients obey the displayed transition rule and hence define a section. This proves the homogeneous rational sections of a twisting sheaf description in both directions, for arbitrary open rather than only a standard chart.
Now lift a regular degree-zero rational function to the punctured cone. The quotient rule gives
This is a rational function homogeneous of degree . It is independent of the chosen representation because differentiation is a derivation of the rational function field. It is regular wherever is regular: a derivation of a polynomial ring extends to each localization by the quotient rule, and regular functions are locally such fractions. The preceding homogeneous-section description therefore proves
Zeros of a particular displayed denominator do not invalidate this argument; regularity is a property of the rational function, which can have another local representation.
The map is a -linear sheaf derivation with values in . The universal property of Kähler differentials consequently defines
Multiplication by the coordinate section defines the other map
For a degree- homogeneous polynomial, differentiating each monomial gives . Applying this to the equal-degree numerator and denominator gives for degree-zero , so . This identity is valid in every characteristic.
To prove all the exactness assertions, fix and put for . The Kähler differential sheaf is free there on , because a derivation of the polynomial ring is determined freely by its values on the coordinates. Trivialize each with frame . In this frame,
where now denotes the th coordinate vector of the direct sum. The map is surjective, since its th coefficient is one. Its kernel consists exactly of tuples with , so the displayed vectors form a free basis of that kernel. The map sends the differential basis bijectively to this kernel basis and is therefore injective. Exactness on these charts proves the cotangent Euler sequence in homogeneous coordinates
The proof uses no division by an integer and hence no characteristic-zero assumption.
For , the cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space gives
In particular, , , and for every . The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology of the displayed Euler sequence begins
and gives zero in the remaining degrees. Thus
The nonzero group is generated by the connecting image of the section of . If is admitted, is a point and its cotangent sheaf is zero, so the sole requested group is zero.
The Weak Mordell-Weil theorem asserts that is finite for an elliptic curve over a number field and an integer . The role of (i) is to make division by possible in the local formal group of an elliptic curve whenever the residue characteristic does not divide .
Let be a finite place with good reduction of an elliptic curve and . The kernel of reduction of an elliptic curve is parametrized by in the maximal ideal of the local valuation ring. Multiplication by is represented by an integral formal power series
Its linear coefficient is a local unit. Part (i) supplies an integral compositional inverse. Both series converge on the maximal ideal, so multiplication by is a bijection on the reduction kernel, over the local field and over every finite unramified extension.
This implies unramified division torsors at good primes. For , first divide its reduction by over the algebraic closure of the residue field. Multiplication by on the reduced curve is surjective and separable, so the chosen division point is defined over some finite residue extension. Smooth lifting gives a point over the corresponding unramified local extension with the required reduction. The difference lies in the reduction kernel; the inverse series supplies with . Thus divides over an unramified extension. Applying the same reasoning to all reduced -torsion points lifts all of , so every point of lies in the maximal unramified extension. This excludes ramification outside a fixed finite set consisting of primes of bad reduction and primes over .
For completeness, the remaining global finiteness step in the Kummer-theoretic proof of the weak Mordell-Weil theorem is as follows. Choose with . The cocycle defines the Kummer map of an elliptic curve
Changing by an -torsion point changes the cocycle by a coboundary. A zero class makes rational after that change, so the map is injective.
Let , fixed independently of . Since the torsion is rational over , the cocycle restricted to its Galois group is a homomorphism into . Consequently is Galois of degree at most , contains the entire division fibre, and is unramified outside . Hence . There are only finitely many extensions of bounded degree unramified outside a fixed finite set: local extensions of bounded degree have bounded field discriminant exponents, and the Hermite–Minkowski theorem then applies to the bounded global field discriminants. Their finite Galois compositum contains every such division fibre; each is stable over because it contains and the whole fibre above the rational point . All the Kummer classes consequently factor through the fixed finite group with values in the fixed finite group . There are only finitely many such cocycles, proving
Thus (i) provides the local division step that bounds ramification; the global arithmetic finiteness completes the argument.
A nonempty compact dynamical system is a minimal dynamical system if it has no proper nonempty closed forward-invariant subset. Equivalently, every forward orbit is dense: the orbit closure of any point is a nonempty closed forward-invariant set, and conversely a closed invariant set contains the orbit closure of each of its points.
Consider the collection of nonempty closed forward-invariant subsets of , ordered by reverse inclusion. Every chain has an upper bound, its intersection: the chain has the finite-intersection property, compactness makes the intersection nonempty, and continuity is not even needed for its forward invariance. The Zorn lemma supplies a minimal member , so is a minimal subsystem. Also is compact, nonempty and forward invariant, so minimality gives . Here the printed word “nontrivial” must mean nonempty; a singleton with its identity map shows that a subsystem with more than one point cannot always be required.
If , every tail of its forward orbit is dense in , since it is the orbit of . Therefore every neighborhood of contains for arbitrarily large . Choosing these times successively for balls of radii gives with . This proves the Birkhoff recurrence theorem: every continuous map of a nonempty compact metric space has a recurrent point. In fact every point of the chosen minimal subsystem is recurrent.
Write the continuous circle extension as the skew product
A sufficient condition, and in this setting also a necessary one, is the circle skew-product minimality criterion: for every integer there is no continuous function such that
The cocycle is assumed continuous; a merely measurable cocycle need not define this topological extension.
To prove sufficiency, choose a minimal subsystem of the extension. Its projection is a nonempty closed forward-invariant subset of , hence all of . For , vertical translation sends to another minimal subsystem, since it commutes with . Two such translates either are disjoint or coincide: a nonempty intersection is closed and forward invariant, so minimality forces equality. Define their common stabilizer
This is a closed subgroup of the circle group. Its closedness follows by taking limits of translations of points in the compact set , using both a translation and its inverse. Each fiber is nonempty. If , the sets and intersect at , so . Conversely translating any fiber point by any member of stays in the fiber. Thus every fiber is exactly one coset of .
If is proper, is proper and therefore finite, say for some positive integer . The character is constant on each fiber coset, giving a well-defined function from . This function is continuous: its graph is the continuous image of in , and projection of that compact graph onto the Hausdorff space is a continuous bijection and hence a homeomorphism. The relation gives , contrary to the criterion. Hence and the extension is minimal.
Conversely, a solution of the displayed equation makes a nonconstant continuous invariant function on the extension. Its nonempty level sets are proper closed invariant subsets, contradicting minimality. This also proves necessity of the circle skew-product minimality criterion.
Apply it with , , , and . The base is a minimal dynamical system: the closure of the cyclic subgroup generated by an irrational angle is the whole circle group, and its positive forward orbit has the same closure. To see the subgroup assertion, a proper closed subgroup of the circle is finite; if it contained an irrational angle it would be infinite. The elementary classification follows because a closed subgroup with arbitrarily small nonzero elements is dense, while otherwise its least positive representative generates a finite subgroup.
There can be no forbidden for any . Indeed, the winding number of a continuous closed path of equals that of , by translation and homotopy invariance of winding number. Consequently their quotient has winding number zero. But the proposed quotient has winding number . Thus the skew product is minimal. Starting at , induction gives
because . Its orbit is dense in the two-dimensional torus, so its second coordinate is dense in the circle. Removing the initial point does not change density, since every orbit tail in a minimal dynamical system is dense. Therefore
The multiplicative Hilbert theorem 90 states that, for a finite Galois extension with Galois group , every multiplicative cocycle satisfying has the form for some . In the cyclic case , it says
Here is the full existence argument. Distinct field homomorphisms are linearly independent as functions over . To see this Artin independence theorem directly, assume a nonzero identically vanishing relation with the fewest nonzero coefficients. There are at least two terms. Choose two participating embeddings and an element with . Evaluate the relation at and subtract times its value at . The th term disappears while the first remains nonzero, giving a shorter vanishing relation, a contradiction.
Apply this independence to
The coefficients are nonzero, so is not identically zero; choose with . The cocycle identity gives , and hence
This proves the general statement. In the cyclic case, given , set and for . The norm-one identity makes this definition compatible with , and the cocycle identity follows by concatenating the products. The argument above gives . Conversely that quotient has norm one because its conjugate product telescopes.
Finally let be unramified, and take its arithmetic Frobenius . For a unit of norm one, the cyclic theorem gives with . Write and choose the common uniformizer . Then has valuation zero, and implies . Thus the unit form of Hilbert theorem 90 is
The unramified hypothesis is what permits shifting an arbitrary integer valuation of by a power of a uniformizer belonging to .
A topological group module is a topological abelian group with a jointly continuous action of by group automorphisms. Its continuous cochains with topological coefficients are
with pointwise addition. The inhomogeneous differential is
For , this means . Continuity of multiplication and of the action ensures that preserves continuous cochains. Expanding gives cancellation in pairs: the two orders of multiplying neighbouring arguments agree by associativity, and the two ways of applying the action agree by its action law. Thus . The cocycles are and the coboundaries are , with . Define
For general topological coefficients this is an algebraic quotient of the continuous cochains; its optional quotient topology need not be Hausdorff. For discrete coefficients it is the usual continuous cohomology of a profinite group. In degree zero it is the subgroup of invariant elements.
Give the discrete prime field its trivial -action. The one-cocycle condition becomes and every one-coboundary is zero. Hence
Every such group homomorphism kills powers and group commutators, hence their closure , and every continuous functional on the quotient pulls back. If is topologically finitely generated, is a finite elementary abelian group. To verify finiteness without assuming it, the closure of a subgroup generated by elements of this abelian exponent- quotient has at most elements; a finite subgroup is already closed. Thus is a finite-dimensional vector space. Question 2 says that a generating family of is minimal precisely when its images give a basis of . The dual space has the same finite dimension. This proves
There is a genuine missing hypothesis if the printed assertion is read for arbitrary pro-p groups and means the least cardinality of any dense generating family. Here is an explicit infinite-rank failure of the first-cohomology generator formula. Let and . Enumerate the finite binary strings as and define if is a prefix of , and otherwise. For finitely many distinct sequences , choose long enough prefixes to distinguish each individually. The corresponding project onto the coordinate unit vectors of , so surjects onto every finite coordinate projection and is dense in the product topology. No finite family can generate densely, since a finitely generated abelian exponent- subgroup is finite and closed. Thus . On the other hand, continuity of a linear functional to means its kernel contains a basic neighbourhood, so it depends on finitely many coordinates. The coordinate projections are consequently a basis of the continuous dual space, giving
The unrestricted infinite-rank formula is false. A convention requiring a generating basis tending to the identity is different from the printed unrestricted topological generator count; the finite-rank identity proved above has no such ambiguity.
For finite , a free pro-p group is characterized by the universal property that every map to a pro-p group extends uniquely to a continuous group homomorphism . It is the pro-p completion of the abstract free group on : each map to a finite -group factors through one of the defining finite quotients, and passing to the inverse limit gives the extension to any pro-p group; uniqueness follows from density. This unrestricted universal property can also define the completion on an arbitrary set . When using an infinite basis required to tend to the identity, one instead imposes the universal property only for maps tending to the identity. Only the finite-rank version is needed for the following argument.
A finite pro-p presentation is an isomorphism
There are finitely many generators and finitely many relators, and the denominator is their closed normal closure. The relators are elements of the free pro-p group; they may be limits of ordinary words. That distinction is important when writing conjugation relations below.
Now suppose has a finite pro-p presentation with generators and relators . The quotient is a finite p-group. Choose a finite finite pro-p presentation . Such a presentation exists, for example by using its entire finite multiplication table. Lift the quotient generators to . For every , choose elements of the free pro-p group on the that map respectively to and in . Choose mapping to , which lies in . Form the finite finite pro-p presentation
All listed relations hold in , giving a continuous surjective group homomorphism : its compact image contains and maps onto .
Let be the closed subgroup of topologically generated by the . Both conjugation directions were included, so each normalizes . The also normalize it, and its closed normalizer contains the generators of . Thus . The relations give a continuous surjection . Its composite with induced by fixes every , and hence is the identity. Therefore the surjection is injective as well, so . On quotienting by , the conjugation and kernel relations disappear, and the remaining presentation is exactly . Thus is an isomorphism. The kernel of lies in and meets trivially, so is trivial. Consequently , proving
Unless a coefficient group is displayed, use integral singular cohomology. The standard CW complex structure on infinite-dimensional real projective space has one cell in each nonnegative dimension. Its cellular chain complex has boundary for positive even and for odd . The cellular cohomology differential is therefore zero for even and multiplication by two for odd . Consequently
More generally, for an abelian group , the positive odd groups are and the positive even groups are . In particular in every nonnegative degree.
For the required Bockstein homomorphism, use the short exact sequence
Here ; for all three coefficient groups are zero. Since singular chains are free abelian groups, applying cochains gives a short exact sequence of cochain complexes. Its connecting homomorphism defines and its long exact sequence is precisely the required one, with the other maps induced by and .
Explicitly, represent a class by a cocycle and choose a lift . Since , there is a unique cochain with . Injectivity of and show . Define
Changing the lift by changes by the coboundary . Changing the representative by a coboundary can be lifted by a coboundary as well and leaves the resulting class unchanged. Thus this is a well-defined group homomorphism, and the standard cochain lifting argument gives exactness.
Compute the Bockstein homomorphism on infinite-dimensional real projective space using its cellular cohomology complex. A generator with coefficients is represented by in degree , lifted to . Its coboundary is for even and for odd . Dividing via gives
Thus the odd-degree maps are isomorphisms. The comparison between cellular cohomology and singular cohomology is natural with respect to coefficient maps, so this computes the same connecting homomorphism constructed above.
For , the Čech cochain complex has groups
Terms in cancel in pairs, and Čech cohomology is . A degree-zero cocycle is exactly a family of compatible local sections. The sheaf gluing axiom gives their unique global section, proving . If the cover has affine finite intersections, a quasi-coherent sheaf has no higher cohomology on those intersections by vanishing of quasi-coherent cohomology on an affine scheme. The acyclic cover theorem then identifies all Čech groups with sheaf cohomology. In particular, a finite affine open cover of a separated variety has this property.
For the sheaf of units of the structure sheaf, a multiplicative degree-one cocycle is a family satisfying , with . It glues trivial rank-one free modules into an invertible sheaf. Changing the local frames multiplies by a coboundary, and two sets of transition data give isomorphic line bundles precisely when their cocycles differ this way. Tensoring line bundles multiplies their cocycles. Thus line bundles trivialized by an open cover give the group isomorphism
For the remaining arguments, work over the algebraically closed ground field. On the irreducible variety , put , a quotient of sheaves of abelian groups. A global section of is locally represented by rational functions whose ratios are regular units. The corresponding unit cocycle defines an invertible sheaf. A single global rational function has trivial cocycle. Conversely, every line bundle has a nonzero rational section: choose a nonzero vector in its one-dimensional fibre at the generic point and express it in local frames. This supplies such local . If the associated line bundle is trivial, changing frames makes all restrictions of one rational function. Therefore
is exact. This is the Cartier-divisor description of the Picard group. The sheaf of nonzero rational functions on an irreducible variety is flasque, since all restrictions between nonempty open sets are the identity on . Apply the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology to . Since , its connecting map has exactly the cokernel just computed, proving
Finally the Segre description of a smooth quadric surface identifies with . The two rulings of a smooth quadric surface have classes generating . For completeness, remove one line in each ruling: the remaining chart is the affine plane, with factorial coordinate ring and trivial divisor class group. The localization sequence for the divisor class group makes generators, and their degrees on the two ruling lines prove independence. The hyperplane class, and hence the conic , has bidegree . By Picard-group localization on a smooth variety, the Picard group of a smooth affine quadric surface is
Explicitly, the restriction of is nontrivial: if it were trivial on , its rational trivialization would have divisor supported on , forcing to be an integer multiple of , which is impossible.