Coherent ideal sheaf Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
An ideal sheaf of a closed subscheme that is a coherent sheaf as a module over the structure sheaf. On a Noetherian scheme, every quasi-coherent ideal sheaf is coherent.
Nilpotent thickening Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
A nilpotent thickening is a closed immersion defined by a nilpotent ideal sheaf of a closed subscheme. Its underlying topological map is a homeomorphism, because every prime ideal contains every nilpotent element. For example, quotienting the dual numbers by changes the structure sheaf without changing the single point of the spectrum.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 iii Paper 13 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For the Sheaf of relative Kähler differentials on , the cotangent form of the Euler sequence isThe last arrow is onto because at least one homogeneous coordinate is invertible on each standard affine chart. Locally its kernel is the rank-three module generated by the differentials of the three affine coordinates, yielding the displayed Sheaf of relative Kähler differentials. The cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space gives for every , while and its positive-degree groups vanish. The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology therefore gives the cotangent-sheaf cohomology of projective space in this dimension:The isomorphism for is the connecting map from the constant global sections of . The Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf is the alternating sum of dimensions, explaining the minus sign.
For the curve, put . It is a unique factorization domain, so irreducibility of makes a prime ideal. Also does not divide : otherwise irreducibility of would make them associates, contrary to their distinct degrees. Thus the image of is a nonzero element of the integral domain . It follows that is a regular sequence. Its Koszul complex is an exact sequence, and graded sheafification giveswhere is the closed immersion. The signs make the composite . The shifts come respectively from , , and .
Let be the ideal sheaf of a closed subscheme. Split this Koszul resolution intoFor all integers , . Also . The two long exact sequences in sheaf cohomology, together with sheaf cohomology under a closed inclusion, consequently identifyBy Serre duality, for . Counting degree- monomials in four variables gives . Thus the source has dimension , and the two target spaces have dimensions and . The rank-nullity theorem proves the requested bound:
In fact equality holds. Under the Serre duality pairings, the dual of this map isIf , primeness of and imply . But has degree one and has degree five, forcing , and then . The dual map is injective, so the original map is surjective and its kernel has dimension . Thus the lower bound is attained for every pair allowed in the question. No smoothness assumption is needed. The regular sequence cuts out a projective complete intersection of dimension one. Also , by the negative twists and the intermediate cohomology vanishing in the first short exact sequence, so the second gives . This is the genus of a complete-intersection space curve: the first cohomology has dimension , equal to its arithmetic genus.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 20 4 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A closed immersion is a morphism of schemes whose underlying map is a homeomorphism onto a closed subset and whose map of structure sheavesis surjective. Equivalently, is the closed subscheme defined by a quasi-coherent ideal sheaf of a closed subscheme on . The affine-local characterization is particularly useful: for every affine open subscheme ,for an ideal , with the map induced by the quotient homomorphism.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 113 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For an affine open subscheme , quasi-coherence gives for an ideal . Define with its usual closed immersion into . On a principal open subscheme , its restriction is , because localization commutes with taking this quotient. These local constructions therefore agree on overlaps and glue.
The resulting underlying closed set is , locally . With inclusion , its structure sheaf isAt a point corresponding to , its stalk is , the local ring of . Thus the glued ringed space is a scheme and is a closed immersion, with ideal sheaf of a closed subscheme exactly . This is the construction of a closed subscheme from a quasi-coherent ideal. If , the construction gives the empty scheme; if , it gives .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 113 4 c i Solution 2026-10-03
For the closed immersion , the ideal sheaf of a closed subscheme givesBecause the projective hypersurface is cut out by one homogeneous polynomial of degree , multiplication by identifiesThis is the ideal-sheaf sequence of a projective hypersurface.