Dual of a sheaf 2026-10-06
The dual is the sheaf of modules whose sections on are module-sheaf morphisms . For a locally free sheaf of finite rank, the dual is locally free of the same rank and the natural double-dual map is an isomorphism. General coherent sheaves need not have this property: a skyscraper at a point of positive-dimensional projective space has zero ordinary sheaf dual.
Free sheaf 2026-10-14
A free sheaf of finite rank on a scheme is a sheaf of modules globally isomorphic to . A locally free sheaf only requires such an isomorphism on an open cover; its local frames need not glue to one global frame.
Internal Hom sheaf 2026-10-14
For sheaves of modules on a ringed space, the internal Hom sheaf assigns to an open the module of sheaf morphisms respecting . Compatible morphisms glue, so this is a sheaf. Its global sections are precisely the global module-sheaf morphisms. For a locally free sheaf of finite rank it is .
Line bundle Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A line bundle on a scheme is a locally free sheaf of rank one. Its global sections can define a morphism to projective space when they have no common zero.
Locally free module 2026-10-14
A locally free module is one whose associated sheaf is locally a free module. In the finite constant-rank case, it becomes free of rank on a principal open subset cover of . Equivalently it is a finite projective module of constant rank . A surjection onto it splits, so the kernel is also finite projective. Its associated sheaf is a locally free sheaf and defines an algebraic vector bundle.
// Target: algebraic-geometry.bigb
Normal sheaf 2026-10-14
For a closed immersion with ideal sheaf , the normal sheaf is . It is the dual of the conormal sheaf. For a regular embedding it is a locally free sheaf; in the smooth case it agrees with the normal bundle. Without regularity it need not be locally free, but its global sections still classify first-order embedded deformations.
At a point , the complex tautological line bundle has fiber . The hyperplane line bundle is its dual, , and . On let be the tautological frame and its dual. On overlaps . The sheaf of holomorphic sections of a vector bundle of this dual bundle is the sheaf .
If a nonzero linear form cuts out the projective hyperplane , it gives a holomorphic section of with a simple zero along . Dividing a local section by gives a meromorphic function with no poles away from and at most a simple pole on . Conversely multiplication by turns such a function into a holomorphic section. These mutually inverse local constructions agree on overlaps and prove the holomorphic line bundle associated to a divisor identification
The nonnegative hyperplane twist cohomology by restriction calculation gives
To derive it from the permitted vanishing, use the hyperplane exact sequence for twisting sheaves
where and . Local multiplication by a defining equation is injective, and restriction gives exactly its cokernel. Induct on , starting from a point, and then on . For , higher sheaf cohomology vanishes by assumption and global holomorphic functions are constant by compactness and the maximum principle. For , the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology, the inductive vanishing for and the dimension induction on give vanishing in every positive degree and
Summing this recurrence gives . Homogeneous degree- monomials give that many independent sections, so they form a basis. The printed extra equality to zero cannot hold in degree zero, already because ; the boxed calculation gives the intended dimensions.
For the differential of the projective quotient map, the differential of a smooth map is computed by applying a tangent vector to coordinate functions. Since ,
Thus
Under replacing by , on a constant ambient tangent vector scales by , while a homogeneous linear form scales by . Therefore is independent of the representative. Its chart coefficients are holomorphic, so it is a global holomorphic vector field. The radial Euler vector field lies in the kernel of , either from the same formulas or because it differentiates a scaling orbit. Hence
Describe the Euler sequence on complex projective space fiberwise as well as in coordinates. At a line , the middle bundle has fiber and the holomorphic tangent bundle has fiber . Send a homomorphism to its composition with the quotient. The map from sends a scalar to that scalar times the inclusion . In homogeneous notation these maps are
A local section of is a local degree-one homogeneous function on the punctured cone, so the second expression is representative-independent. Quotienting is surjective, and its kernel consists exactly of scalar inclusion maps. This proves the short exact sequence of locally free sheaves
Since it is locally split, dualizing and tensoring by preserves exactness and gives the cotangent Euler sequence in homogeneous coordinates
On global sections the last map identifies with the basis of linear forms in . Its kernel is zero. This proves the vanishing of global sections of the once-twisted projective cotangent bundle; left exactness gives .
Use homogeneous coordinates . Multiplication by these degree-one sections defines the sheaf morphism
On , write , with , and let be the standard vector in component using the local line bundle frame of . Then , so is surjective since . Its kernel is a locally free sheaf with basis
Indeed any vector in the kernel is uniquely a sum of these vectors, by solving for its -th component.
The Kähler differential sheaf has basis on , since this chart is a polynomial affine scheme. Define the local map . To check that these isomorphisms glue, on put and . Then
The twisting sheaf on projective space frame changes by , hence
For , use , and ; the same formula applies. Thus the differential and kernel frames have identical transition matrices. We obtain the cotangent form of the Euler sequence:
This construction works over any field, including positive characteristic.
The Kähler differential sheaf has rank . Taking determinant line bundles in this locally split short exact sequence of sheaves gives
The left side is the tensor product of copies of , and . Consequently
It is the canonical bundle of projective space. The determinant identity can also be seen directly by taking the wedge of the kernel basis followed by a lift of the quotient basis; changing that lift by a kernel vector leaves the wedge unchanged.
Take the compact Riemann surface and the holomorphic vector bundle . For every positive integer , use homogeneous coordinates and the map
The two sections never vanish together on . Thus this map has rank one at every point; locally one of its two components is invertible in suitable line-bundle frames, so its image is a genuine holomorphic subbundle and its quotient is a locally free sheaf. More explicitly, there is an exact sequence
Exactness follows fibrewise from the absence of a common zero and hence also locally as a sequence of vector bundles. The image is isomorphic to and has rank one, so
Thus there need not be a lower bound for subbundle slopes, even for a fixed trivial rank-two bundle. Merely multiplying a section of one fixed subline by a function with zeros would not suffice: that could give only a subsheaf with a torsion quotient. The nowhere-simultaneously-zero pair above avoids that problem and realizes unbounded negative degrees of line subbundles.
Let be the smooth algebraic curve. A nonzero regular section of a line bundle has an effective zero divisor, so its degree of a line bundle is nonnegative. Degrees add under tensor products and change sign on taking the dual. We use genuine line subbundles, so their quotients in are locally free. Both bounds can be proved constructively.
For the upper bound, take a rational frame of over the function field of . Its two members are rational sections with only finitely many poles. Choose an effective divisor large enough to bound the pole orders of both rational sections. They become global sections of and define a sheaf map
which is an isomorphism at the generic point. It is therefore injective as a sheaf map: a section in its kernel would vanish generically in a locally free sheaf, which is a torsion-free sheaf. For any line subbundle , at least one of its two component maps into is nonzero. Such a map is a nonzero global section of . Its zero divisor on an algebraic curve is effective, so
This upper degree bound for line subbundles on a smooth curve depends only on a choice made for , and applies to every one of its line subbundles.
For the lower-bound question we will actually construct subbundles for every sufficiently large integer , where is a fixed point. First prove the globally generated vector bundle property rather than assuming that negative-degree inclusions automatically are subbundles.
Apply the upper-bound argument to the rank-two vector bundle , where is the canonical bundle. Let be its upper degree bound. Choose with . For any point , a nonzero global section of would give a nonzero map
Its image can be saturated to a saturated line subbundle on a smooth curve . Locally the local ring of a smooth algebraic curve is a discrete valuation ring: dividing out the common power of a uniformizer makes the image a primitive rank-one summand, and its quotient is free. Thus the saturation is indeed a subbundle. The original map gives a nonzero global section of and consequently , contradicting the upper bound. Hence for every . By Serre duality,
The exact sequence
and its long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology show that evaluation is onto for every . This proves the global generation of positive twists on a smooth curve with one bound on that works at every point.
Write and . The evaluation map is surjective with kernel bundle of rank . Consider the incidence subset
It is the total space of this kernel bundle, so . Its projection into is closed because is proper, and its image has dimension at most . Choose outside this proper closed subset. It vanishes nowhere. In a local trivialization at any point, one component of is a unit, so it can be completed to a basis. Therefore is a subbundle with a locally free rank-one quotient. Twisting back gives
This proves the unbounded negative degrees of line subbundles. The nowhere-vanishing construction guarantees a subbundle at every point, including the zeros that might otherwise have occurred in a generic meromorphic inclusion. If the curve has several connected components, apply these constructions on each component and add the degrees; the same upper-bound and no-lower-bound conclusions follow.
Let . Work with commutative rings and take a quotient to mean a surjection , considered up to an isomorphism of commuting with . Equivalently, retain its kernel as a submodule of . Here a rank- locally free module is finite locally free, or equivalently a finite projective module of constant rank . A ring homomorphism sends the quotient to
The tensor product of modules is right exact and preserves finite projectivity, so this defines the functorial action. We prove scheme representability in the usual functor of points sense:
naturally in . The Grassmannian of locally free quotients will be constructed explicitly.
Assume first , and choose a basis of . For every ordered subset , consider those quotients for which are a basis of . This choice gives a unique identification , in which the quotient is represented by an matrix whose columns indexed by are the identity matrix. Its remaining entries are arbitrary elements of . Thus this subfunctor is represented by the affine scheme
There is no further change-of-basis ambiguity: the selected quotient images already specify its basis uniquely.
For another subset , write for the square submatrix consisting of the columns. The same quotient lies in the chart exactly when its determinant is a unit. Consequently the chart overlap is the principal open subset
On that overlap the matrix normalized in the basis is
The entries are regular on by the adjugate matrix. Conversely, the columns of form , so normalization back to recovers . The transition is therefore an isomorphism .
The cocycle identity follows from the same matrix computation, not just an assertion about bases. On a triple overlap, normalization first to and then to gives
This is direct normalization from to . By gluing of schemes along open subschemes, the standard affine charts of the quotient Grassmannian therefore glue to a scheme over .
The universal matrices also glue a universal quotient. On , use the surjection
On overlaps, identify its targets by , precisely the transition matrix above. The cocycle identity glues these free sheaves into a rank- locally free sheaf and glues the maps into . Its kernel is locally free of rank : on an explicit basis is
Hence we have the universal exact sequence
It remains to verify that these charts capture every quotient, including a nonfree projective target. Given , define as the locus where the selected images , , form a basis. This is open: locally trivialize the locally free sheaf associated with , and it is the nonvanishing locus of the corresponding maximal minor. The sets cover . Indeed, at every prime , the images of all vectors span the -dimensional residue-field quotient, so some of them form a basis there. Their determinant is a unit in , hence they form a basis over that local ring and on an open neighbourhood of .
On , trivialize using exactly those selected images. The remaining columns give regular functions and hence a morphism . On , the normalized matrices satisfy the displayed transition formula, so the local morphisms glue to a morphism
Its pullback of the universal quotient is the original quotient, because this is true in each of the specified bases. Conversely, any morphism pulls back the universal sequence to a rank- locally free quotient. On each inverse-image chart its matrix is exactly the normalized matrix used to reconstruct , so the two constructions are inverse. They are unchanged by an isomorphism commuting with the quotient map, and they commute with every base change . This proves the natural bijection and therefore
Taking kernels over a field identifies this with the usual Grassmannian of -dimensional subspaces of . The construction itself does not assume the target module is globally free.
For , the only quotient is zero; for , a surjection to a locally free module of the same rank is an isomorphism, as can be checked locally by its determinant. Both endpoint functors are represented by . If , no such quotient exists over a nonempty test scheme, and the representing scheme is empty. Finally, scheme representability does not mean representation by a single ring: already gives , which is not affine. This is the standard algebraic-geometric meaning of representability for the functor on rings here.
The divisor determines the bundle through its local equations. Choose an open cover on which has a reduced holomorphic defining equation , using on sets disjoint from . Because is a complex submanifold of codimension of a submanifold one, its ideal is locally generated by a coordinate; consequently is a nowhere-zero holomorphic function on each overlap. Inside the sheaf of meromorphic functions on a complex manifold, consider the locally free sheaf of rank one
These local descriptions agree on overlaps. With , its transition functions of a vector bundle are specified by
The ratios satisfy the Čech cocycle condition, and the associated holomorphic line bundle associated to a divisor is . The section is holomorphic and vanishes to order one along . Replacing by , with a holomorphic unit, replaces the frame by without changing the subsheaf of meromorphic functions. Refining the cover changes no local sections either. This proves choice independence up to isomorphism rather than merely producing a bundle for one cover.
For a complex manifold of dimension , the canonical bundle is
It is the holomorphic line bundle of holomorphic top-degree differential forms. To compute it on Complex projective space, let be the complex tautological line bundle, so that is the hyperplane line bundle. At a line , the tangent space is . Tensoring the tautological quotient sequence by gives the Euler sequence on complex projective space
Taking the top exterior power gives ; taking its dual bundle yields
Here a negative tensor power means the corresponding positive tensor power of the dual bundle.
The proposed sections over form a sheaf: compatible maps into glue uniquely, and their projections remain . Addition and multiplication by holomorphic functions are defined in the fibres of , making this a sheaf of -modules. If is a holomorphic local frame of on , every section over has the unique expression
Thus the sheaf is a locally free sheaf of rank one. Its transition functions of a vector bundle are those of composed with , so the corresponding pullback vector bundle is precisely . This proves invertibility locally and compatibility globally.
For the local blowup of a complex manifold at a point, work on the projective chart and write
All the incidence equations reduce to . Therefore gives a holomorphic coordinate chart isomorphic to . On an overlap with ,
which is a biholomorphism where . The incidence subset is closed in the product of two Hausdorff spaces and is covered by these charts; hence it is a complex manifold of dimension . In each chart the exceptional fibre is , so it is a smooth complex submanifold, with its induced projective coordinates giving
Away from the origin the inverse of the projection is , which is holomorphic; the projection is therefore a biholomorphism outside .
To find the canonical bundle, pull back the nowhere-zero top form on . In the chart above, its Jacobian determinant gives
The sign depends only on the ordering of the coordinates. This is a section of with divisor on a complex manifold exactly : it has that vanishing order in every exceptional chart and no zeros elsewhere. A nonzero meromorphic section of a holomorphic line bundle with divisor identifies its holomorphic line bundle with , by sending the local generator of to the nowhere-zero frame obtained by dividing the section by . Consequently
This also includes , when the local map is an isomorphism and the exponent is zero.
For a general complex manifold, choose a coordinate neighbourhood of , with sent to , and replace by the inverse image of this coordinate neighbourhood in the local blowup of a complex manifold at a point. Glue this space to along using the preceding biholomorphism. The resulting charts give a complex manifold and a holomorphic map ; the exceptional fibre is and the map is a biholomorphism off that fibre. For completeness, the local projection is proper because its inverse image over a compact subset is closed in that subset times compact Complex projective space. This ensures the gluing is Hausdorff: separate points with distinct images downstairs, and points over inside the local blowup. The atlas is second countable as well.
The top exterior power of the differential defines a global holomorphic bundle map . Equivalently, it is a section of . The same local Jacobian determinant has vanishing order on , and the differential is invertible elsewhere. Applying the holomorphic line bundle associated to a divisor construction gives the canonical bundle formula for a point blowup
The opening change-of-rings tensor quotient sends to . The target pairing is bilinear and -balanced because . On the source, let act through the first factor; commutativity makes that action compatible with the -balancing relations, and the map is -linear. It is surjective: the target is the quotient imposing the additional relations for every . The construction commutes with module homomorphisms in both variables.
The pullback-direct-image adjunction unit is obtained locally by pulling a section to and sending it to in . These maps respect restrictions and the -actions, hence define
For , multiplication identifies with , and is precisely the structure morphism .
To construct the direct-image tensor comparison, on send , with and , to its tensor section of . This pairing is -balanced through and is compatible with restrictions. The universal property of the tensor product of modules and sheafification therefore give
Apply this with after tensoring the unit with . The composite is the map in the projection formula for sheaves. If , then , and the composite identifies with
the identity on the components. Thus it is an isomorphism for a locally free sheaf of finite rank. Neither nor was assumed quasi-coherent.
First suppose is a nonempty integral scheme, with generic point and function field . Since taking stalks preserves the inclusion , local freeness of rank two would give an injective -linear map
contradicting the dimension of a vector space.
For a nonempty Noetherian scheme that is reduced, there are finitely many irreducible components. Choose one, and remove the union of the others. The resulting nonempty open subscheme is irreducible and reduced, hence integral. Restricting the proposed locally free sheaf to it gives the contradiction above. Therefore no locally free ideal of rank two exists on a nonempty reduced Noetherian scheme.
The rank bound for locally free ideals on reduced schemes in fact removes the Noetherian assumption: on an affine open where the rank is fixed, localization at a minimal prime ideal gives a field, so a free ideal has rank at most one. Nonemptiness is necessary for the literal statement: on the empty scheme the zero sheaf is vacuously locally free of every stipulated rank. The question is interpreted with this usual nonempty hypothesis.
First consider the preliminary cohomological facts. The exam's term flabby means flasque sheaf: every restriction map is surjective. For open sets , lift a section of to using the given surjectivity when is flasque. Extend that lift to using the flasque sheaf , then project to . This proves that is a flasque sheaf.
One construction of a flasque resolution starts with the sheaf , with pointwise restriction. It is a sheaf of abelian groups with surjective restrictions, and sending a section to all its germs embeds in it. Repeating on the cokernels constructs an exact sequence
with each flasque. Define sheaf cohomology by the cohomology of the cochain complex of global sections of such a resolution; the groups are independent of the chosen flasque resolution. If is itself flasque, the quotient result just proved makes every successive cokernel flasque. Applying the assumed surjectivity of sections to each successive short exact sequence of sheaves proves exactness of the global-section complex in positive degrees. Thus for .
Now let be the function field of the smooth algebraic curve. Its divisor class group is
Here is the discrete valuation of the discrete valuation ring , and consists of the principal divisor elements . These sums have finite support: on a finite affine cover, represent as a fraction of regular functions; each nonzero numerator or denominator has only finitely many zeros on a curve, since a proper closed subset of a Noetherian one-dimensional irreducible space is finite.
For a divisor on an algebraic curve , define the line bundle associated to a divisor by
In this expression the valuation condition applies to nonzero . If is a uniformizer, the stalk is . Shrinking around removes all other zeros and poles of and all other points in the support of , so this also gives an actual local generator. Thus is a locally free sheaf of rank one. Multiplication gives an isomorphism
on every stalk. If , then , so the construction factors through a homomorphism .
It is injective: if is trivial, an isomorphism from supplies a nonzero global rational generator . At each closed point, generates , giving , hence .
It is surjective: take a line bundle and a nonzero rational section , obtained by choosing a frame on any nonempty trivializing open set. If is a local frame, write with . Since changes of frame are units, is independent of the frame near . A finite trivializing cover shows that these numbers have finite support. Set . The map gives , because at the condition is exactly regularity of . Replacing by changes by , so this construction is well defined on classes. This proves the divisor class group and Picard group of a smooth curve identification
The -module is a locally free sheaf of finite rank if every has an open neighborhood and a finite integer for which
The rank is locally constant and is therefore constant on each connected component.
The adjunction morphism , together with , gives
Adjunction between the inverse image sheaf and direct image sheaf turns this into the projection formula for sheaves morphism
On local sections it sends a pure tensor over to over .
Whether this morphism is an isomorphism is local on . If for finite , its restriction becomes the canonical identification
Thus the projection-formula morphism is an isomorphism whenever is locally free of finite rank.
Projection formula 2026-10-14
For a morphism of ringed spaces, there is a natural morphism
It is an isomorphism when is a locally free sheaf of finite rank, because the claim is local and then reduces to distributivity over a finite direct sum.
The same formula holds for higher direct images: when is locally free of finite rank.