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Cap product with the locally finite fundamental class of an $n$-manifold without boundary gives the displayed duality, including a possibly nontrivial orientation local system ${\mathcal{O}}_M$. It is the noncompact version of Poincare duality; for a compact manifold Borel-Moore homology is ordinary homology. Locally it is the relative fundamental-class calculation in an oriented coordinate ball; compatibility on overlaps and the Mayer–Vietoris sequence give the global statement. Since the chain complex of locally finite homology is zero in negative degrees, this duality implies $H^k(M;\mathbb{Z})=0$ for $k>n$.

For a closed oriented $d$-dimensional manifold over a field $F$, the cup product pairingis a perfect pairing between complementary degrees. The cap product with the fundamental class is an isomorphism by Poincare duality, and the universal coefficient theorem for cohomology over $F$ identifies the complementary cohomology with the full dual space of the resulting homology. Evaluation is therefore a perfect pairing. Taking the top-degree part of the same formula defines a nondegenerate bilinear form on the full graded cohomology. A boundary requires relative groups and Poincare-Lefschetz duality instead.

The fundamental class of a complex projective line generates $H_2({\mathbb{CP}}^2;\mathbb{Z})$. Two distinct projective lines are homologous and meet at one transverse point. In complex affine coordinates their two complex tangent lines concatenate to the complex orientation of the plane, so the signed intersection is $+1$. The integral intersection form therefore has matrix $(1)$, giving a unimodular intersection pairing. This computes a self-intersection through distinct representatives of the same class.