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.
For a ring homomorphism , the module of Kähler differentials is the -module generated by symbols , subject to
Equivalently, it represents -linear derivations:
For , the Transitivity exact sequence for Kähler differentials is
If is surjective, the Conormal exact sequence for Kähler differentials is
Let be a finite field extension. By the primitive element theorem, its maximal separable field extension is simple, and transitivity reduces the calculation to a simple algebraic extension. If with minimal polynomial , then
Thus a separable simple extension has zero differentials. Conversely, if is not separable, the purely inseparable part has a generator whose minimal polynomial has zero formal derivative in positive characteristic, producing a nonzero differential. Hence
Now let . If , , and , then the minimal polynomial is and has zero derivative, so
If , where , , and , then . Both defining equations have zero derivative, and
  • In (i), and relative to , so
If , this is and its support is the origin . If , it is free of rank one and its support is all of .
  • In (ii), and vanish relatively, whence
Its support is the origin in every characteristic; the module is unless , when it is .
  • In (iii), and give
Its support is the entire component .