Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 16 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be the coherent ideal sheaf of , and let be the ideal sheaf of a closed point. Because , the stalk is . Evaluation at therefore gives a surjective morphism of sheaves to the skyscraper sheaf at . Its kernel is again a coherent ideal sheaf. Fromand , the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology shows that is onto. Choose mapping to . It vanishes on and satisfies . Hence , and inside the affine variety it is the principal open subset defined by . A principal open of an affine variety is affine. This gives affine principal neighbourhoods from ideal-sheaf vanishing.