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For an affine variety with coordinate ring $A$ and an $A$-module $M$, localization defines sections on principal open subsets by the displayed formula. Restrictions are the natural localization maps. Equivalently, a section is a family of stalk values which locally come from one fraction $m/f^r$. These data form a quasi-coherent sheaf, with global sections $M$ and stalk $M_{{\mathfrak{m}}_P}$ at $P$. Sheaf tensor products correspond to tensor products over $A$; pullback of a sheaf of modules corresponds to extension of scalars, and affine direct image to restriction of scalars.

Let $P$ have an affine open neighbourhood $U$, and let $Y=X\setminus U$. Evaluation gives ${\mathcal{I}}_Y\twoheadrightarrow k_P$ with kernel ${\mathcal{I}}_Y\cap {\mathcal{I}}_P$. If first sheaf cohomology of every coherent ideal sheaf vanishes, a global section $f$ of ${\mathcal{I}}_Y$ can be chosen with $f(P)=1$. Then $X_f\subseteq U$ is a principal open subset of an affine variety and is affine.

For an affine scheme $X=\mathrm{Spec}A$, its ring of global sections is $A$. A morphism of schemes between affine schemes is determined contravariantly by its map on these rings. Consequently a morphism between affine schemes is an isomorphism of schemes exactly when that ring map is an isomorphism. The affine hypothesis is essential, as the punctured affine plane shows.

A morphism of schemes into an affine scheme is uniquely determined by its homomorphism on global sections. Conversely, a ring homomorphism $A\to \Gamma (X,{\mathcal{O}}_X)$ restricts on every affine open subscheme of $X$ to a map into $\mathrm{Spec}A$; equality on affine covers of overlaps glues these maps. No quasi-compactness or affineness assumption on $X$ is needed.

For a Noetherian ring $A$, a finitely generated module $M$ has a finite presentation of a module, and kernels of maps from finite free modules to $M$ are finitely generated. Its affine module sheaf is therefore a coherent sheaf. Conversely, if $\tilde{M}$ is coherent, choose a finite principal open subset cover on which its section modules are finitely generated. Lift their finitely many generators to numerators in $M$. The submodule generated by these numerators becomes all of $M$ on every chart, and hence is all of $M$: its quotient has zero localization at every point. This proves finite generation without assuming that global sections preserve arbitrary sheaf surjections.

A Noetherian scheme is affine exactly when every coherent ideal sheaf has zero first sheaf cohomology. One direction is vanishing of quasi-coherent cohomology on an affine scheme. For the converse, ideal-sheaf vanishing produces affine principal neighbourhoods from ideal-sheaf vanishing. A finite such cover yields a unit-ideal certificate from a principal affine cover, and those affine charts glue to the spectrum of a commutative ring of global sections. The criterion, including the finite-type ideal version for quasi-compact quasi-separated schemes, is recorded in Stacks Project, Section 30.3.

For a morphism of sheaves $\varphi :\mathcal{F}\to \mathcal{G}$ of abelian groups or modules, the cokernel sheaf is the sheafification of the presheaf $U\mapsto \mathcal{G}(U)/\varphi (\mathcal{F}(U))$. Its stalk at $x$ is $\mathrm{coker}({\mathcal{F}}_x\to {\mathcal{G}}_x)$. The presheaf quotient itself need not satisfy the sheaf gluing axiom, which explains why a surjective morphism of sheaves need not be surjective on global sections.

The quotient sheaf ${\mathcal{K}}_X^{\ast }/{\mathcal{O}}_X^{\ast }$ records the zero and pole orders of local nonzero meromorphic functions. Each of its global sections is naturally a divisor on a complex manifold on $X$.

For the sheaf ${\Omega }^p$ of holomorphic $p$-forms on a complex manifold, the Dolbeault-Poincaré lemma makesa resolution by fine sheaves. Taking global sections therefore gives the natural isomorphism

An effective Cartier divisor is cut out locally by one non-zero-divisor; it is a codimension-one closed subscheme. On an integral scheme a nonzero global section of a line bundle defines such a divisor, possibly empty. On a nonreduced scheme a nonzero section need not be regular, so its zero locus need not be a Cartier divisor.

On ${\mathbb{P}}_k^n$ with $n>0$, let $\mathcal{F}=i_{\ast }k$ at a rational point. It has one-dimensional global sections, but its dual of a sheaf is zero: a local map from the residue field into the local polynomial ring must have image annihilated by a nonzero parameter, which is impossible in an integral domain. Thus $H^n({\mathcal{F}}^{\vee }(-n-1))=0$. Serre duality for arbitrary coherent sheaves instead uses an Ext functor; replacing this by the ordinary dual can lose torsion information.

A globally generated line bundle on a quasi-compact scheme is generated by finitely many global sections. Each point has a section generating on an open neighbourhood, and quasi-compactness gives a finite subcover. This supplies a map into a fixed finite-dimensional projective space associated with that line bundle.

A first-order embedded deformation of a closed subscheme $Z\subseteq X$ is a closed subscheme $Z_{\epsilon }\subseteq X{\times }_k\mathrm{Spec}(k[\epsilon ]/({\epsilon }^2))$ flat over the dual numbers and with special fibre equal to the given embedded $Z$. It is a tangent vector of the Hilbert scheme, not a deformation modulo arbitrary automorphisms of the ambient scheme. These deformations are naturally the global sections of the normal sheaf.

The embedding line bundle has at least four independent global sections. If it is nonspecial, the Riemann-Roch theorem gives $h^0=6-g$, so $g\le 2$. If it is special, the Clifford inequality for curves gives $h^0\le 3$, a contradiction. The smooth projective curve need not span its full ambient projective space.

A line bundle is globally generated if at each point some global section has a germ generating its stalk as a module over the local ring. Equivalently its evaluation map from global sections tensored with the structure sheaf is surjective.

The displayed line bundle is globally generated, but no finite family of global sections generates it. A family of $N$ sections restricts to $N$ linear forms on ${\mathbb{P}}^m$; for $m\ge N$, these have a common zero. This shows why finite global generation on a quasi-compact scheme requires its finiteness hypothesis.

A sheaf of modules is globally generated when the evaluation map from its global sections is surjective. Equivalently, the germs of global sections span each stalk as a module over the local ring. For a coherent sheaf on a projective variety, every sufficiently positive twist is globally generated: embed the variety in projective space, present its direct-image sheaf as a quotient of a finite sum of $\mathcal{O}(-a)$, twist until those line bundles are globally generated, and restrict their generating sections to the variety.

A vector bundle is globally generated when its global sections span every fibre. The evaluation map in the display expresses this condition. On a projective curve its space of global sections is finite-dimensional, so a finite collection of sections suffices.

A global regular function is a global section of the structure sheaf of a scheme, defined on the entire scheme. These functions form its ring $H^0(X,{\mathcal{O}}_X)$. On an affine scheme this recovers the defining ring; on a positive-dimensional projective complete intersection it consists only of constants over the base field.

Embed a sheaf of abelian groups $\mathcal{F}$ into the sheaf $C(\mathcal{F})(U)={\prod }_{P\in U}{\mathcal{F}}_P$ by all its germs. Restrictions are projections, so $C(\mathcal{F})$ is flasque. Repeat on the successive sheaf cokernels to obtain a canonical flasque resolution. Its complex of global sections computes sheaf cohomology. When $\mathcal{F}$ is itself flasque, the flasque-kernel section-lifting lemma makes every successive quotient flasque and makes the global-section complex exact in positive degrees, proving $H^q(X,\mathcal{F})=0$ for $q>0$ without assuming that vanishing in the construction.