Direct sum of sheaves 2026-10-06
The direct sum of sheaves of abelian groups is the sheafification of the presheaf . It need not equal that presheaf: sections are locally represented using finitely many summands, while globally infinitely many can occur. For point-supported skyscraper sheaves at closed points, allowable point supports are a locally finite family of subsets.
A fiber metric on a real vector bundle is a smoothly varying positive-definite inner product on each fiber. Choose a trivializing open cover and a smooth partition of unity subordinate to it. The partition theorem gives nonnegative functions summing to one, a locally finite family of subsets of supports, and ; the usual Hausdorff second-countable smooth manifold hypotheses ensure this theorem applies. Transfer the Euclidean inner product to each local vector bundle trivialization, obtaining , and set
Each weighted term extends smoothly by zero outside , and local finiteness makes the sum smooth in every vector bundle trivialization. At each some weight is positive, so for every nonzero . This proves existence of a fiber metric, with no orientability or triviality assumption.
A vector bundle morphism covering the identity is a smooth map that preserves base points and is a linear map on each fiber. Its induced map on the module of smooth sections is , and is -linear. We prove the converse by constructing bundle morphisms from maps of smooth sections.
First the given map is local. If a global section vanishes on a neighborhood of , take a smooth bump function supported there with near . Then , so , and hence . Thus sections agreeing near have images agreeing at .
Choose a local frame on , and a bump function equal to one on a smaller neighborhood of and supported in . Multiplying the frame by that bump and extending by zero gives global smooth sections whose restrictions to are the frame. If , write on . A second bump extends each to a global smooth function agreeing near . By locality and -linearity,
Every fiber vector is the value of a global smooth section, by the same bumped-frame construction. Define for any such section. The just-proved vanishing statement makes this well-defined. The maps are linear maps, and locally their matrix columns are the smooth sections in a frame of . Thus is smooth, is a vector bundle morphism, and satisfies . Fiberwise evaluation also proves uniqueness.
Finally apply the fiber metric construction to the tangent bundle. A Riemannian metric defines the musical isomorphism
Positive definiteness makes it a fiberwise bijection; its inverse is smooth because inverse metric matrices vary smoothly. Hence and are isomorphic as real smooth vector bundles on every such manifold. The isomorphism depends on the chosen metric and is not canonical.
Let , the sheaf of meromorphic principal parts. Exactness of taking stalks gives
Choose a holomorphic coordinate vanishing at . Every meromorphic germ has a finite negative tail in its Laurent series; the holomorphic tail vanishes in the quotient. Hence
This coordinate description is a vector-space identification; the intrinsic space is the quotient of germs, so a coordinate change need not preserve the displayed basis.
For each point inclusion , a principal part defines a local meromorphic germ near , whose quotient class is zero off . Gluing with zero on the complement gives a map from its skyscraper sheaf to . These maps induce an isomorphism on every stalk and therefore an isomorphism of sheaves:
The direct sum of sheaves means the sheafification of the sectionwise direct-sum presheaf. Its sections can have infinitely many nonzero components globally, but their point supports form a locally finite family of subsets. This matches the fact that poles of a meromorphic function are locally finite. On a compact Riemann surface only finitely many points can occur; on a noncompact one a discrete infinite family is allowed.
For a global principal-part family , choose local meromorphic lifts on a sufficiently small open cover. The differences are holomorphic functions and form a Čech cocycle. The connecting homomorphism sends to the resulting class in . If this class vanishes, after refining the cover write ; then the functions glue to a global meromorphic function. Conversely any global lift makes the class zero. Equivalently, exactness of the given long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology says
The connecting class is the obstruction to the Mittag-Leffler problem on a Riemann surface. It rules on the specified poles and their finite negative Laurent tails, with no additional poles allowed. When a solution exists, any two solutions differ by a global holomorphic function.