Flasque-kernel section-lifting lemma Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
For a short exact sequence of sheaves with flasque sheaf kernel, every section of the quotient on any open set lifts to the middle sheaf on that set. Use the Zorn lemma to choose a maximal partial lift, with chains glued by the sheaf gluing axiom. A new local lift differs from the old one on their overlap by a kernel section. Extend that difference by flasqueness, adjust the new lift, and glue, contradicting maximality unless its domain is the entire open set. Consequently a quotient of two flasque sheaves is flasque. With an injective resolution of sheaves, the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology and repeated dimension shifts prove that flasque sheaves have zero positive-degree cohomology.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 16 4 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Recall that a flasque sheaf has surjective restriction maps on every inclusion of open subsets. We first prove the flasque-kernel section-lifting lemma: in an exact sequence of sheaves, with a flasque sheaf, every section of on any open subset lifts to a section of on .
Fix such a section . Order its lifts on open subsets by extension. A chain has an upper bound by the sheaf gluing axiom, so Zorn's lemma gives a maximal lift . If , choose a point outside and a neighborhood on which has a local lift . On , the difference is a section of . Extend it to by flasqueness and subtract it from . The corrected lift now agrees with and glues on , contradicting maximality. Thus , proving the lemma.
It follows also that if both and are flasque sheaves, then is a flasque sheaf. Given a section of on , first lift it to on , extend that lift to , and project to .
Next, an injective sheaf of modules is a flasque sheaf. For , let and denote the open inclusions into . Extension by zero gives a monomorphism : on every stalk it is either , the identity, or . By the adjunction for extension by zero,Injectivity therefore makes surjective. This proves injective module sheaves are flasque.
Take an injective resolution of sheaves of . Write and, successively,The initial is a flasque sheaf; each is a flasque sheaf; and the quotient argument proves inductively that all are flasque sheaves. The section-lifting lemma makes each displayed sequence exact after global sections. Consequently the complex of global sections of the injective resolution of sheaves has zero positive cohomology. Since that complex defines sheaf cohomology,
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 113 4 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
We prove the vanishing by an injective resolution of sheaves and the flasque-kernel section-lifting lemma.
For a short exact sequence of sheaves with flasque kernel, every section of on an open set lifts to there. Indeed choose a maximal partial lift by the Zorn lemma, using the sheaf gluing axiom on chains. At any point outside its domain choose a local lift. The difference on the overlap is a section of and extends to the new open set by flasqueness; subtract that extension from the new lift and glue. Maximality forces the lift's domain to be the whole open set. Thus taking sections preserves this short exact sequence.
Every injective sheaf is flasque: for , the monomorphism between the extension by zero sheaves and the defining extension property of injectivity make the restriction surjective. Embed into an injective sheaf . The quotient is flasque as well: lift a section of on a smaller open to , extend it in , and project.
The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology now gives , since is surjective, and for gives , since injectives have zero positive-degree derived functors. Repeat the construction for the flasque quotient. After finitely many such shifts any specified positive degree reduces to a vanishing first group. HenceNo separation, compactness or scheme hypothesis is used.