Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 16 2 Solution 2026-10-06
For an affine variety, every coherent ideal sheaf is quasi-coherent; vanishing of quasi-coherent cohomology on an affine scheme therefore gives .
For the projective-space complement, assume and choose two distinct closed points . Take the ideal sheaf of two closed points on . The codimension-two extension of regular functions on a normal variety givesOne can see this directly: on every standard affine chart of , a rational function written in lowest terms cannot have a nonconstant denominator, because an irreducible polynomial factor of the denominator would define a pole along a codimension-one hypersurface, and such a hypersurface is not removed by . The extended function is constant because every global regular function on projective space is constant. Now the short exact sequencesends diagonally into on global sections. Its cokernel is , and the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology injects that cokernel into . ThusThe assumption is necessary: is already affine and has no such example.