Constant sheaf of sets 2026-10-07
The sections are locally constant functions into a discrete set , with ordinary restriction. It is the sheafification of the constant presheaf of sets. Its value on an empty open set is a singleton, even if is empty. For a topological space, this construction is left adjoint to the global sections functor: a map from it to a sheaf is a family of global sections indexed by .
The Mahler coefficients tend to zero, so the displayed series defines a continuous function and has value zero at zero. The Pascal's identity and uniform convergence give . Thus the forward difference operator is surjective on continuous functions on the p-adic integers. Its kernel consists of constants: period one implies agreement on the dense nonnegative integers, and continuity then implies constancy. This selects the unique discrete antiderivative vanishing at zero.
There is also a direct construction on locally constant functions. If has period , put , , and . For with and , set
This is a continuous function on each residue class. Increasing gives ; at , the next point has residue zero and quotient , giving the same identity. The ultrametric inequality gives , and . The construction is independent of the chosen period, since two normalized discrete antiderivatives agree on the nonnegative integers and then on the p-adic integers by continuity. It is linear on the locally constant functions, which form a dense subset in the supremum norm. Completeness therefore extends it to every continuous function, retaining and the norm bound. This proves surjectivity without first using the Mahler theorem.
Suppose , where and are disjoint closed sets with and . Since each is the complement of the other, both are also open in . Define on and on . This locally constant function is continuous and contradicts part (c). Therefore .
For in the Lie algebra , set . The one-parameter subgroup law gives the flow law, and
so this is the global flow of the left-invariant vector field .
For , every tangent vector at is the initial velocity of for some . Since ,
Thus all vanish exactly when every derivative of vanishes. This is equivalent to being a locally constant function.