We prove the Birkhoff–Grothendieck theorem by induction on the rank of the vector bundle . Rank zero is immediate; rank one is the classification established above.
First there is a largest integer with . To see existence and boundedness directly, trivialize on the two standard affine charts: the associated finite projective modules over the principal ideal domains and are free. Let be its transition matrix, so a section of is a pair satisfying
If exceeds the largest exponent in any entry of , the right side has only strictly negative powers; the left side has nonnegative powers. Hence both vanish. For sufficiently negative, take a nonzero constant vector and put ; all its exponents are nonpositive, so it supplies a nonzero section. Thus a largest exists.
Such a section gives a nonzero map . It is injective, since it is nonzero generically and the source is torsion-free. Saturate its image. The resulting line subbundle is for the degree of the effective divisor of zeros of the original map. If , its inclusion in would give a nonzero section of , contradicting maximality. Therefore and
has a locally free quotient. By induction, .
Twist this exact sequence by . The outer groups and are zero by the Čech cohomology of twists on the projective line. The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology therefore gives
The first is zero by the choice of , so each vanishes. Thus for every . The extension class lies in
since . The identification of this Ext functor with cohomology can be seen without additional duality: local splittings of a vector-bundle extension differ by a Čech cocycle in , and a coboundary changes them to compatible splittings. Vanishing therefore gives a global splitting. Consequently
completing the induction over any field .
The degrees can be arranged in nonincreasing order and their multiset is unique. Indeed, for any such decomposition,
so the dimensions of the twisted global sections recover the number of summands of every degree.
Use the finite map from the preceding solution. The inverse images of the two standard affine charts and of their intersection are affine, because is finite. The vanishing of quasi-coherent cohomology on an affine scheme therefore lets their two-term Čech cochain complex compute . It has terms only in degrees zero and one, proving
This actually applies to every quasi-coherent sheaf on .
For a smooth projective curve with , define its genus of a smooth projective curve by
The preceding Serre duality also gives . The condition on constants holds in particular for a geometrically connected smooth projective curve. It makes equal to the arithmetic genus . We state the theorem with this usual convention and then give the formula valid without that condition.
For a divisor on an algebraic curve and a canonical divisor with , the Riemann-Roch theorem is
The degree over an arbitrary field is weighted by residue degrees: when . Equivalently, for a line bundle ,
We now prove it via Riemann-Roch via elementary modifications.
For any closed point and any line bundle , the exact sequence
has a skyscraper sheaf as its quotient, with -dimension . This follows locally from a uniformizer of the discrete valuation ring at : a local line-bundle generator modulo that uniformizer spans one copy of . The quotient has zero higher cohomology, as it is the direct image from a finite affine scheme. The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology and the proved higher vanishing give
Every line bundle has a nonzero rational section of a line bundle, whose local orders give a divisor on an algebraic curve with . Iterating the displayed identity, adding or subtracting closed points with their multiplicities, gives
For the constants convention above, . The dualizing sheaf on a smooth projective curve gives , which converts this Euler-characteristic identity into the stated Riemann-Roch theorem. This proves the formula over arbitrary , without assuming the closed points are -rational.
For vector bundles, the corresponding formula is
To see it, saturate a rational rank-one subspace to a line subbundle and induct on rank. Both Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf and the degree of the determinant are additive in the resulting short exact sequence. The line-bundle formula just proved starts the induction.
Taking and using duality gives , , and hence . In particular a line bundle of degree greater than has zero first cohomology: its dual twisted by has negative degree, and a negative-degree line bundle has no nonzero section, since any section would have an effective divisor of zeros.
If the term “curve over ” is used without requiring , the unconditional formula we proved is
Writing then replaces by . For example, viewed as a -curve for a finite separable extension has , so a literal constant term would be incorrect. Alternatively the arithmetic genus gives the formula with constant . The constants hypothesis for the usual genus is recorded in Stacks Project, genus of a curve.
On the polydisc, put and define
Each integral is along the straight coordinate segment, which remains in the polydisc. Holomorphic dependence on parameters and differentiation under the integral show that is a holomorphic function. For a fixed , terms with do not depend on , and the term contributes . If , use the assumed symmetry to obtain
These differences telescope. Therefore
This is the coordinate-integral primitive on a polydisc.
For a closed holomorphic one-form , closedness is exactly . The preceding construction plus gives a local holomorphic function with . The kernel of on the structure sheaf of a complex manifold consists of locally constant functions: holomorphicity already gives , and then implies . Thus the holomorphic Poincaré lemma gives the short exact sequence of sheaves
The first object is the complex constant sheaf, and surjectivity is local, on stalks. It does not say that every global closed holomorphic one-form has a global primitive.
Now assume compactness. The constancy assertion is for a connected complex manifold; otherwise it holds on each connected component. A smooth complex-valued with is a pluriharmonic function. Restricting to each complex coordinate line makes it a harmonic function of one complex variable. Choose where has its global maximum and a coordinate polydisc about . The allowed harmonic maximum principle makes the first coordinate-line restriction constant. Every point on that line still has the same maximal modulus and the same value, so the second coordinate may then vary without changing . Continue through all coordinates to conclude that equals on the whole polydisc. The set where it has this value is closed and, by the same argument at each of its points, open. Connectedness therefore gives constant. In particular global holomorphic functions on a compact connected complex manifold are constant.
For the top-degree pairing, write locally . With the complex orientation,
It is everywhere nonnegative and is positive on an open set if is not identically zero. Hence
The phase factor is necessary: the unnormalized integral need not be a positive real number. This is the integral pairing of complex top forms.
If is a holomorphic differential form of degree , then has type and . The graded Leibniz rule and Stokes theorem give
The positive pairing just proved forces . Thus every holomorphic -form on a compact complex -manifold is closed, without a Kähler metric assumption.
On a compact complex surface, this proves closedness of all holomorphic one-forms. Sending such a form to its de Rham cohomology class defines the required inclusion. Indeed, if , its type gives , so is a global holomorphic function and is constant. Therefore .
To prove the zero intersection, let be holomorphic one-forms and suppose . There is a smooth complex-valued with . Its type components are and . Closedness of gives , hence . Compact pluriharmonic rigidity now makes constant and . The two spaces are therefore linearly independent in de Rham cohomology, and conjugation preserves their dimensions:
For the other bound, take the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology of the short exact sequence above. The map is an isomorphism, componentwise. Since every global holomorphic one-form is closed, the relevant portion is
Identify the middle term with first de Rham cohomology, and the last with by the Dolbeault theorem. Taking dimensions gives
These are the Betti and Hodge bounds for compact complex surfaces.
A strict example is the scalar Hopf surface . Polar coordinates identify it smoothly with : the dilation fixes the angular coordinate and shifts by . Its first Betti number is one, since its fundamental group is . The proved lower bound then forces , and the upper bound forces . Thus on this compact complex surface; no unsupported cohomology computation is needed.
The canonical bundle is , the holomorphic line bundle of holomorphic top forms on a complex -manifold. For an embedded complex submanifold of dimension , the holomorphic normal bundle is the quotient
Taking determinants and duals gives adjunction for a smooth submanifold:
For a closed smooth hypersurface, is its divisor line bundle, equipped with a holomorphic section whose zero divisor is with multiplicity one. If locally defines , local meromorphic generators transform by the holomorphic units . The stated normal-bundle relation is
Equivalently the conormal is . The closed-divisor interpretation is needed to define ; an arbitrary nonclosed local submanifold does not define that global divisor bundle.
For a holomorphic subbundle , define on sections of , with acting on the bundle factor of a bundle-valued form. It obeys the Leibniz rule. Since is holomorphic, lies in , so . For , their inner products with the normal components of vanish; hence projecting preserves metric compatibility. The uniqueness proved for the Chern connection identifies
This is the projected Chern connection.
Choose the adapted smooth unitary frame and retain Question 2's input-index convention. The connection matrix is skew-Hermitian. Its upper-left block is for ; writing the lower-left block as forces the upper-right block to be :
Holomorphicity of makes the normal part of vanish, so has type , and has type . The matrix represents the second fundamental form of a holomorphic subbundle in this input-index convention. These types would appear in the opposite blocks with coefficient-column indices; they must not be swapped while retaining the printed minus-sign Cartan equation.
Take the upper-left block of the Cartan curvature equation with input indices. It is
Therefore the curvature formula for a holomorphic subbundle is
The sign and the order of the factors both follow from the displayed block multiplication.
Now let be a complex torus and a closed smooth hypersurface. The torus has a translation-invariant flat Kähler metric, and and are holomorphically trivial. Give its flat metric and apply the preceding formula to . Since ,
For a tangent vector , the latter coefficient is , so is a semipositive real form. Thus is a semipositive holomorphic line bundle. This proves the semipositive canonical bundle of a submanifold of a complex torus assertion directly from curvature. By adjunction for a smooth submanifold, .
Restrict a positive metric on to . The tensor-product metric on
has curvature , which is positive for every nonnegative integer . Hence
The integer condition is implicit in a tensor power. No assertion of strict positivity of is required.
For vanishing, write . The allowed Kodaira vanishing theorem says that on a compact Kähler manifold , for when is a positive holomorphic line bundle. Since is trivial, its application on the torus gives for .
For every , the divisor section gives the exact sequence
where . Crucially,
and is positive by the proved restriction statement. The induced Kähler metric makes compact Kähler, so Kodaira vanishing theorem on gives for all . In the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology, the segment
then has zero outside terms by induction. Therefore
This proves vanishing for divisor twists on a complex torus using restriction positivity and the divisor exact sequence, rather than presuming ambient positivity of every divisor twist.
Put and . A homogeneous polynomial of positive degree is nonzero, and is an integral domain. Multiplication by therefore gives an exact sequence of coherent sheaves
where is the closed immersion.
We compute the necessary cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space. The standard three affine open subsets and all their intersections are affine schemes. For a quasi-coherent sheaf, vanishing of quasi-coherent cohomology on an affine scheme and the acyclic cover theorem identify its sheaf cohomology with the Čech cohomology of this cover. In degree , the Čech cochain complex is
Decompose it into subcomplexes indexed by Laurent monomials with . Let . Such a monomial occurs in the summand for a nonempty index set precisely when , since only the variables in are inverted.
If is empty, the monomial contributes the cochain complex of a full two-simplex: its degree-zero cohomology is and its higher cohomology vanishes. If , the dimensions in degrees are ; the first map has rank one and the second map has rank one with the same kernel as the first map's image. If , there is one copy of in each of degrees and and the map between them is an isomorphism. These two cases are acyclic over every field, including characteristic two. If , only the degree-two term occurs, contributing one copy of . It follows that
and that , , and . Moreover the Laurent-monomial description of top cohomology on projective space gives a basis of consisting of
For , subtracting one from each counts these as . For there are no such triples, and the formula is also zero.
Use the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology of the initial sequence, and cohomology under a closed immersion to identify the terms for . The vanishings just proved give
Therefore
This proves the cohomology of a projective plane hypersurface without imposing smoothness, irreducibility or reducedness. In particular, the second number is an arithmetic genus, not a claim about the genus of a normalization.
For a smooth projective curve , let be its geometric genus, let be a canonical divisor, and write for the dimension of a vector space of the Riemann-Roch space. The Riemann-Roch theorem says
for every divisor on an algebraic curve on .
Here is the cohomological proof of Riemann-Roch for curves. At a closed point , the local ring is a discrete valuation ring. A local uniformizer shows that increasing the allowed pole order by one gives the short exact sequence of sheaves
The last term is a length-one skyscraper sheaf; its precise identification with is noncanonical, but its sheaf cohomology has and . All the relevant groups of sheaf cohomology are finite-dimensional because is a projective variety, and coherent sheaf cohomology above degree one vanishes on a algebraic curve. The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology therefore gives
Since is an algebraically closed field, every closed point has degree one. Iterating this identity for both positive and negative coefficients of proves
Every global regular function on a projective variety which is an irreducible variety is constant; hence and .
Finally apply Serre duality for a smooth projective curve:
Taking dimensions of a vector space and inserting this in the Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf identity proves the displayed Riemann-Roch theorem. The substantial inputs from sheaf cohomology are finiteness and vanishing for coherent sheaves on a projective curve, and Serre duality; the change of Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf is proved directly by the point exact sequence. In particular the argument handles negative as well as effective divisors on an algebraic curve.
For the Sheaf of relative Kähler differentials on , the cotangent form of the Euler sequence is
The last arrow is onto because at least one homogeneous coordinate is invertible on each standard affine chart. Locally its kernel is the rank-three module generated by the differentials of the three affine coordinates, yielding the displayed Sheaf of relative Kähler differentials. The cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space gives for every , while and its positive-degree groups vanish. The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology therefore gives the cotangent-sheaf cohomology of projective space in this dimension:
The isomorphism for is the connecting map from the constant global sections of . The Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf is the alternating sum of dimensions, explaining the minus sign.
For the curve, put . It is a unique factorization domain, so irreducibility of makes a prime ideal. Also does not divide : otherwise irreducibility of would make them associates, contrary to their distinct degrees. Thus the image of is a nonzero element of the integral domain . It follows that is a regular sequence. Its Koszul complex is an exact sequence, and graded sheafification gives
where is the closed immersion. The signs make the composite . The shifts come respectively from , , and .
Let be the ideal sheaf of a closed subscheme. Split this Koszul resolution into
For all integers , . Also . The two long exact sequences in sheaf cohomology, together with sheaf cohomology under a closed inclusion, consequently identify
By Serre duality, for . Counting degree- monomials in four variables gives . Thus the source has dimension , and the two target spaces have dimensions and . The rank-nullity theorem proves the requested bound:
In fact equality holds. Under the Serre duality pairings, the dual of this map is
If , primeness of and imply . But has degree one and has degree five, forcing , and then . The dual map is injective, so the original map is surjective and its kernel has dimension . Thus the lower bound is attained for every pair allowed in the question. No smoothness assumption is needed. The regular sequence cuts out a projective complete intersection of dimension one. Also , by the negative twists and the intermediate cohomology vanishing in the first short exact sequence, so the second gives . This is the genus of a complete-intersection space curve: the first cohomology has dimension , equal to its arithmetic genus.
Order the index set of the open cover . The Čech cochain groups are
and their differential is the alternating sum of restrictions:
Terms obtained by deleting two indices cancel in pairs, so . The Čech cohomology is , with zero incoming differential in degree zero. Its zeroth group is the group of global sections by sheaf gluing.
The acyclic cover theorem applies if every nonempty finite intersection is acyclic for . For a quasi-coherent sheaf on a variety it is sufficient that every such intersection is affine; on a separated variety, any affine open cover has this property. On , take the standard charts . Every intersection is a principal open in an affine chart, hence affine. The Čech complex has no terms above degree , proving
This is the cohomological dimension bound from an affine cover and requires only quasi-coherence, not finite generation.
For the remaining projective calculations assume . There is a necessary zero-dimensional exception to the negative-twist assertion: is a point, every twist is trivial there, and even for .
Put with its usual grading. The twisting sheaf on projective space is the sheaf associated with the shifted graded module ; on an intersection its sections are
On a generator is , with transition . These are regular units on overlaps and satisfy the cocycle relation, so they glue an invertible sheaf for every integer , including negative .
A global section is a compatible family of these homogeneous fractions, hence a single element of degree in . For , and are relatively prime in the unique factorization domain , so ; therefore the full intersection is . It follows that
For its dimension is . The proof uses all-chart compatibility; regularity on one chart alone would permit poles on its complement.
If some , the ideal contains , so the requested containment is immediate. Otherwise every . A monomial of degree must have for some : if not, its total degree would be at most . Thus every degree- monomial, and hence every homogeneous polynomial of that degree, belongs to . This is monomial containment in an ideal of coordinate powers.
For , a top-degree Čech cochain for is a degree-zero Laurent polynomial on the full intersection. Write it with a common denominator as
The containment just proved gives , with homogeneous of degree . Consequently
The th term is regular on the intersection omitting , and has degree zero. Give it the sign in that component of the preceding Čech cochain. Its coboundary is the original fraction. Every top cochain is thus a coboundary, and
This is top Čech cohomology from missing-denominator monomials.
To obtain the negative-twist bound by induction on dimension, let be a hyperplane, with inclusion . Its equation gives the hyperplane exact sequence for twisting sheaves
The associated long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology and sheaf cohomology under a closed inclusion give
For , restriction is the surjection . Exactness and the already proved give . The displayed surjections then give the same vanishing for every . This handles the point hyperplane without making a false negative-twist claim on .
For , the induction hypothesis in dimension gives whenever . Therefore consecutive top-degree groups are isomorphic for . Starting with and stepping down through reaches . Stepping upward proves all positive twists too. We conclude
This is top-twist vanishing by hyperplane induction.
Finally, on write and . On , let be the wedge of for , taken in increasing index order. For , differentiating and gives
In the wedge, all terms involving a second copy of disappear; the surviving powers are from and from the other differentials. Moving into its original position produces the stated sign. Rescale each local generator by . Then on every overlap, exactly the transition of the twist with . This canonical-form transition on projective space proves the canonical bundle of projective space:
For line bundles the Serre duality pairing becomes
In particular is dual to , which is zero for , precisely the independently obtained bound. The case recovers , and matches . Thus the calculated transition functions, global sections and top-degree vanishing agree with Serre duality.
Let be the space of smooth complex differential forms of type . The Dolbeault operator satisfies , and the Dolbeault cohomology is
For the denominator is zero; forms outside the dimension range are zero.
A sequence of sheaves is an exact sequence of sheaves precisely when its sequence of stalks at every point is exact. Here this means the first map is injective on stalks, the last is surjective on stalks, and the image equals the kernel at the middle stalk. In particular, a section of the last sheaf need only have local lifts; surjectivity on all global sections is not required.
The associated long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology of Čech cohomology, understood in the direct limit over open covers, is
The degree-zero groups are global sections. The connecting map is obtained by locally lifting a Čech cocycle to the middle sheaf and taking its Čech coboundary, which takes values in the first sheaf. Different lifts change it by a Čech coboundary.
For , the assertion is the assumed vanishing for coherent ideal sheaves. For , project onto the last component. Its image is a coherent ideal sheaf, and its kernel is a coherent sheaf contained in . Here images and kernels are coherent because a variety is Noetherian. The short exact sequence
gives an exact segment in the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology. The outer terms vanish by mathematical induction and the hypothesis, so the middle term vanishes. This is ideal-sheaf vanishing for a coherent submodule of a trivial bundle.
Let be the coherent ideal sheaf of , and let be the ideal sheaf of a closed point. Because , the stalk is . Evaluation at therefore gives a surjective morphism of sheaves to the skyscraper sheaf at . Its kernel is again a coherent ideal sheaf. From
and , the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology shows that is onto. Choose mapping to . It vanishes on and satisfies . Hence , and inside the affine variety it is the principal open subset defined by . A principal open of an affine variety is affine. This gives affine principal neighbourhoods from ideal-sheaf vanishing.
The quasi-compactness of gives a finite cover by the affine principal neighbourhoods constructed above. Because at every point some is a unit in the local ring, the map of coherent sheaves
is surjective. Its kernel is a coherent submodule of the trivial bundle, so by part (a). The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology makes the map on global sections surjective. Lifting supplies
This is the unit-ideal certificate from a principal affine cover.
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 gives
One 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 sequence
sends diagonally into on global sections. Its cokernel is , and the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology injects that cokernel into . Thus
The assumption is necessary: is already affine and has no such example.
For , the Čech cochain complex has groups
Terms in cancel in pairs, and Čech cohomology is . A degree-zero cocycle is exactly a family of compatible local sections. The sheaf gluing axiom gives their unique global section, proving . If the cover has affine finite intersections, a quasi-coherent sheaf has no higher cohomology on those intersections by vanishing of quasi-coherent cohomology on an affine scheme. The acyclic cover theorem then identifies all Čech groups with sheaf cohomology. In particular, a finite affine open cover of a separated variety has this property.
For the sheaf of units of the structure sheaf, a multiplicative degree-one cocycle is a family satisfying , with . It glues trivial rank-one free modules into an invertible sheaf. Changing the local frames multiplies by a coboundary, and two sets of transition data give isomorphic line bundles precisely when their cocycles differ this way. Tensoring line bundles multiplies their cocycles. Thus line bundles trivialized by an open cover give the group isomorphism
For the remaining arguments, work over the algebraically closed ground field. On the irreducible variety , put , a quotient of sheaves of abelian groups. A global section of is locally represented by rational functions whose ratios are regular units. The corresponding unit cocycle defines an invertible sheaf. A single global rational function has trivial cocycle. Conversely, every line bundle has a nonzero rational section: choose a nonzero vector in its one-dimensional fibre at the generic point and express it in local frames. This supplies such local . If the associated line bundle is trivial, changing frames makes all restrictions of one rational function. Therefore
is exact. This is the Cartier-divisor description of the Picard group. The sheaf of nonzero rational functions on an irreducible variety is flasque, since all restrictions between nonempty open sets are the identity on . Apply the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology to . Since , its connecting map has exactly the cokernel just computed, proving
Finally the Segre description of a smooth quadric surface identifies with . The two rulings of a smooth quadric surface have classes generating . For completeness, remove one line in each ruling: the remaining chart is the affine plane, with factorial coordinate ring and trivial divisor class group. The localization sequence for the divisor class group makes generators, and their degrees on the two ruling lines prove independence. The hyperplane class, and hence the conic , has bidegree . By Picard-group localization on a smooth variety, the Picard group of a smooth affine quadric surface is
Explicitly, the restriction of is nontrivial: if it were trivial on , its rational trivialization would have divisor supported on , forcing to be an integer multiple of , which is impossible.
The direct image of a coherent sheaf under a closed immersion puts in the category of coherent sheaves on . By sheaf cohomology under a closed inclusion and the supplied compatibility of twisting with direct image,
Here is a proof of the required Serre vanishing on projective space. A coherent sheaf on is the sheaf associated with a graded module for a finite graded -module. Equivalently, it has a presentation by finite sums of twisting sheaves. Use a finite twisting resolution of a coherent sheaf on projective space: resolve the graded module by a finite graded free resolution, using the Hilbert syzygy theorem, and sheafify; exactness of localization preserves the resolution. Its terms are finite sums of .
Choose sufficiently large that all twists occurring in these finitely many terms are nonnegative. The cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space then vanishes in every positive degree for every resolution term. In a short exact sequence , with , the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology identifies with for . Iterating to the final acyclic term proves
The standard graded-module description used here is given in Stacks Project, Section 30.15; the vanishing follows from the displayed finite-resolution argument.
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.
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. Hence
No separation, compactness or scheme hypothesis is used.
Put and . The hypothesis says multiplication by on the graded ring is injective for . Checking homogeneous elements suffices: an arbitrary annihilated element splits into homogeneous components, each annihilated separately because and are homogeneous. Also because it has degree , and is an integral domain. Thus is a regular sequence, and the suggested short exact sequences become
Sheafification and twisting preserve exactness. With , the resulting sequences, interpreted on the ambient projective space via the closed inclusions, are
Cohomology under a closed immersion identifies the displayed sheaf cohomology with that on . For every integer , cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space gives for . Inducting through the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology gives
Indeed the two adjacent groups have degrees and on , both in its vanishing range. This is intermediate cohomology vanishing for a projective complete intersection.
We simultaneously prove for and . Both hold on by the same projective-space formula. For , the preceding stage has . If , both degree-zero groups on that stage vanish, so the new one vanishes. If , the left degree-zero group vanishes because , while the middle group is . Therefore the natural restriction of constant functions is an isomorphism at every stage:
These are isomorphisms of -algebras, not just vector spaces. The global regular functions on a positive-dimensional projective complete intersection are constants even if the complete intersection is singular or nonreduced; smoothness and reducedness were not assumed.
Put and let be the canonical global section cutting out the effective Cartier divisor . The divisor restriction exact sequence gives
The hypothesis says is an ample line bundle. By Serre vanishing, for all sufficiently large , so the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology makes
surjective for all such . These are finite-dimensional vector spaces. Their dimensions form a nonincreasing sequence of nonnegative integers, so the maps are isomorphisms from some point on. Exactness then implies that the restriction
is surjective for all sufficiently large .
Choose such an for which is also a globally generated line bundle. Lift a generating collection of its global sections to . At each point of , one lift has nonzero image in the one-dimensional residue-field fibre, hence generates the stalk of by Nakayama lemma. Outside , is nowhere zero and generates . Together these sections generate it everywhere. Therefore
This proof works on an arbitrary projective scheme because the defining section of an effective Cartier divisor is a non-zero-divisor. If is empty, and the conclusion is immediate. Semiampleness is the conclusion: the pullback of a line avoiding the centre of a blowup of a smooth algebraic surface of satisfies the hypothesis on its support but has zero intersection with the exceptional curve, and therefore is not ample.
The sheaf of nonzero rational functions on an irreducible variety is a flasque sheaf. Indeed, its sections on any nonempty open subset are : irreducibility makes nonempty open subsets connected and makes any two of them meet, so locally constant rational-function values must agree. Restrictions between such opens are identities; restriction to the empty set is also surjective. The preliminary argument therefore gives
Apply the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology to the short exact sequence of sheaves of multiplicative abelian groups
Its relevant part is
Part (b) identifies the first map with the principal divisor map . Exactness therefore identifies its cokernel with . Combining this with part (a) gives
The connecting map sends a divisor to the class of the unit ratios of its local rational representatives; these are precisely the transition data of the associated line bundle, up to the usual choice of inverse transition convention.