Boundary module 2026-10-06
The submodule of coboundaries in degree . The cohomology group is the corresponding cycle module modulo the boundary module.
For a cohomological spectral sequence, and the next page is its cohomology. In the bounded setting, convergence of a spectral sequence to means that each has a finite decreasing, exhaustive and separated filtration with
Here is the eventual stable value. This determines the associated graded module of , rather than automatically a canonical direct-sum decomposition of . For unbounded filtrations additional completeness/convergence conditions are necessary; boundedness removes those issues here.
The bounded filtered-complex convergence theorem states the following. If is a decreasing filtration by cochain subcomplexes, preserved by the differential, finite in each cochain degree (uniform bounds , are sufficient), then there is a spectral sequence
The abutment filtration is . Its finite length ensures stabilization and the displayed limiting-page identification. The filtered cochain complex need not itself be bounded in cochain degree. In the degreewise finite version, the bounds in degrees suffice to stabilize the terms of total degree .
For a double cochain complex bounded in both indices, form the total cochain complex with anticommuting differentials and total differential . If the original differentials commute, inserting the usual sign in one of them gives this convention. Filtering by the first index gives and then . Filtering by the second index gives the spectral sequence taking horizontal cohomology first and vertical cohomology next. Both filtrations are finite, so both converge to . This is the two spectral sequences of a bounded double complex construction.
The printed left/left tensor expression needs a handedness repair. Over an arbitrary ring, a tensor product of modules over pairs a right module with a left module. To retain the order of the printed formula, take to be a bounded cochain complex of projective right -modules and a left -module. Alternatively, keep left, take right, and write and . For a commutative ring no repair is needed. We prove the first, correctly typed formulation.
Finite projective dimension gives a finite projective resolution by left modules. Form for . On take and . These anticommute, and the double cochain complex is bounded in both directions. Projective modules are flat modules, so taking vertical cohomology first gives
The first identification uses flatness of ; the second is the Tor functor computed by resolving its left-module argument . Balancedness of the Tor functor allows either correctly sided projective resolution to compute it, by the double-resolution argument.
Taking horizontal cohomology first instead uses flatness of . The resolution then leaves only in column . Its remaining differential is , so the augmentation is a quasi-isomorphism. Apply the convergence theorem to this underlying abelian-group double complex. The two spectral sequences therefore prove the Künneth spectral sequence:
These are abelian groups in general; an extra module structure requires appropriate bimodule hypotheses. The index is nonpositive, so is the nonnegative homological index of the Tor functor.
Finally write the cycle modules as and the boundary modules as . If every boundary module is projective, the short exact sequence splits. Thus is projective. The short exact sequence is now a length-one projective resolution, so for . The page occupies only columns . Every for goes columns to the right, hence has zero source or zero target. Therefore
This two-column degeneration of a Künneth spectral sequence gives the edge short exact sequences
Degeneration itself does not supply a canonical splitting. Projective boundaries also do not force to be projective: a complex with differential multiplication by over has projective boundary but a cohomology group.