Cohomology growth for nef twists 2026-10-05
Let be a nef Cartier divisor and let the coherent sheaf have support dimension . Then for . This does not require reducedness or smoothness.
Choose a very ample and fix sufficiently large for Fujita vanishing. Choose a section of avoiding the associated points of . Its multiplication gives , where has support dimension at most . After tensoring with , the middle term has zero higher sheaf cohomology, uniformly in . Hence . Induct on support dimension: for use the polynomial bound for sections of a fixed divisor, and for use the induction hypothesis. Degree greater than vanishes by Grothendieck vanishing.
Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf 2026-10-05
On a proper scheme over a field, the Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf is . The sum is finite by Grothendieck vanishing, and long exact sequences in sheaf cohomology make it additive in short exact sequences of sheaves.
For a coherent sheaf on a projective variety over a field, every is finite-dimensional, and Grothendieck vanishing gives zero for . A closed embedding in projective space and a finite twisting resolution of a coherent sheaf on projective space reduce finiteness to the explicit cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space. The same resolution proves Serre vanishing after sufficiently positive twisting.
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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 139 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Choose very ample divisors and , with defining sections avoiding the associated points of . Such a choice is possible after taking a sufficiently high ample twist. Put . The two indicated short exact sequences of sheaves and their long exact sequences in sheaf cohomology implyWe abbreviate by . Each has dimension and the restricted divisor is nef. For positive degrees below , the assumed induction estimate bounds the error terms by . The displayed hypothesis omits top-degree cohomology; use top cohomology boundedness for nef twists for that degree, and Grothendieck vanishing above it. These give the same error bound. The auxiliary top-degree result follows from Fujita vanishing by cutting a coherent sheaf with an ample divisor, as proved in cohomology growth for nef twists.
For , summing the inequality over successive gives for every . For , all such groups vanish by Grothendieck vanishing.