Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 15 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be a separated Noetherian scheme over a field and a coherent sheaf. Coherent cohomology studies the groups : global sections in degree zero and the obstructions to gluing local sections in higher degrees. Coherence means finite generation locally, and on a Noetherian scheme it is preserved by kernels, cokernels and extensions. This makes coherent sheaves suitable for exact-sequence calculations.
For an ordered open cover , the Čech cochain groups arewith differentialEach double omission occurs twice with opposite signs, so . The Čech cohomology of the cover is , and taking the direct limit over refinements defines cover-independent Čech cohomology. In degree zero the sheaf gluing axiom identifies it with .
The comparison with derived-functor sheaf cohomology is particularly effective algebraically. Positive-degree cohomology of a quasi-coherent sheaf on an affine scheme vanishes. A separated scheme has affine intersections of affine opens, so a finite affine cover is acyclic for . Its Čech cochain complex consequently computes directly. For a short exact sequence of sheaves, sections over each affine intersection are exact on quasi-coherent sheaves. The resulting short exact sequence of Čech complexes gives the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology. In particular, the connecting map measures the failure of a global section of the quotient to lift globally.
Several central projective results make the theory finite and computable. On a projective variety over , every coherent cohomology group is finite-dimensional. The Grothendieck vanishing theorem gives for . If is ample, Serre vanishing gives for sufficiently large , and these large twists are globally generated sheaves. On projective space a coherent sheaf has a finite twisting resolution of a coherent sheaf on projective space: finite sums of resolve it. The explicit line-bundle cohomology below and the long exact sequences prove finiteness and positive-twist vanishing. For a closed embedding , is coherent and , reducing these results to projective space. A sufficiently positive twist of a finite presentation by sums of also proves global generation.
The Euler characteristic of a coherent sheafis therefore defined, and the long exact sequence makes it additive. With a fixed projective embedding, is its Hilbert polynomial, and for sufficiently large it equals . On a smooth projective variety of dimension , Serre duality gives, for a vector bundle ,For an arbitrary coherent sheaf the correct counterpart is ; replacing this Ext group indiscriminately by the cohomology of the ordinary sheaf dual would lose local extension information.
We now calculate the basic examples. For , use the standard cover of . Sections of on an intersection are degree- Laurent monomials in which negative exponents are allowed only for coordinates inverted on that intersection. Decompose the Čech cochain complex by exponent vectors with sum . If no exponent is negative, the corresponding simplex complex contributes only in degree zero. If all exponents are negative, the monomial occurs only on the full intersection and contributes only in degree . When the negative-index set is nonempty and proper, inserting any index outside it gives a contracting homotopy, so the monomial complex is acyclic. Hence the cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space isIn the top group a basis consists of the Laurent monomials with every exponent at most . Writing reduces the count to nonnegative solutions of , giving the displayed binomial coefficient. In particular, all intermediate cohomology vanishes, and agrees with Serre duality. For separately, every twist is trivial and .
On the projective line this givesThus positive and negative degrees produce quite different groups, while their alternating difference is a single polynomial. The twisted cubic is isomorphic to and its hyperplane bundle corresponds to . Consequently for , agreeing with Q2, and .
For a smooth plane curve of degree , the ideal-sheaf sequence of a projective hypersurface isThe long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology and the preceding formula give and . ThereforeFor this is zero; for a plane cubic it is one. Twisting the same exact sequence gives . These examples illustrate how Čech cohomology, vanishing, Serre duality and exact sequences convert local equations into global numerical invariants.