The direct image sheaf is determined on the basis consisting of principal open subschemes . Their inverse images are
and hence
On the other hand, localization of the restricted-scalar -module gives
These isomorphisms commute with restriction to smaller principal opens, so they define the equality of quasi-coherent sheaves
Because is a Noetherian scheme, choose a finite affine cover . Every intersection is quasi-compact, so choose a finite affine cover . If and are the inclusions, the sheaf axiom gives an exact sequence
where the last arrow is the difference of the two restrictions to each overlap chart.
Applying the left-exact direct image sheaf functor identifies with the kernel of
Every map and is a morphism between affine schemes. Part (a) shows that all sheaves in the two finite sums are quasi-coherent sheaves. Kernels of morphisms of quasi-coherent sheaves on the affine scheme are quasi-coherent, because they correspond to kernels of module homomorphisms. Therefore is quasi-coherent. This is the quasi-coherence of direct image under a quasi-compact quasi-separated morphism in the present Noetherian case.
An -module is a quasi-coherent sheaf when every affine open has for some -module . For a morphism , its direct image sheaf is
while the pullback of a sheaf of modules is
If is a closed immersion of Noetherian schemes, then on an affine open one has . The restriction of corresponds to the cyclic -module , so it is finitely generated. Hence is a coherent sheaf; more generally this is the direct image of a coherent sheaf under a closed immersion.
Coherence need not survive an arbitrary pushforward. Let
be the open immersion. The sheaf is coherent, but
is not a finitely generated -module. Therefore is not coherent.
Choose a finite affine cover of the Noetherian scheme . Because is separated, every finite intersection is affine. Its inverse image under the closed immersion is also affine. By the definition of the direct image sheaf,
The Čech complexes for on and for on the induced cover are therefore identical, including their restriction maps. Both affine covers are acyclic for the relevant quasi-coherent sheaves, so the acyclic cover theorem gives
for every . This is cohomology under a closed immersion.
For , use its standard affine opens. The induced cover of is still acyclic, and its Čech complex has no cochains in degrees greater than . The cohomological dimension bound from an affine cover therefore yields
The tensor product of sheaves is the sheafification of the presheaf
Equivalently, its stalk at is .
The direct image sheaf is defined on each open set by
The pullback of a sheaf of modules is
where is the inverse image sheaf and the tensor product uses the structural morphism of the given ringed-space morphism.
The adjunction morphism , together with , gives
Adjunction between the inverse image sheaf and direct image sheaf turns this into the projection formula for sheaves morphism
On local sections it sends a pure tensor over to over .
Whether this morphism is an isomorphism is local on . If for finite , its restriction becomes the canonical identification
Thus the projection-formula morphism is an isomorphism whenever is locally free of finite rank.
For a morphism of ringed spaces, the pullback of a sheaf of modules is left adjoint to the direct image sheaf functor. The unit sends a local section to after inverse image. On the structure sheaf it becomes the given ring homomorphism .
For a closed inclusion , direct image sheaf formation is exact: stalks on are unchanged and stalks outside are zero. It also preserves flasque sheaves. Pushing forward a flasque resolution thus gives a resolution computing cohomology on , and its complex of global sections is identical to the original one on . This proves the displayed isomorphism in every nonnegative degree.